A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the BJP in poll mode by addressing a rally in Hamirpur, the Congress on Wednesday chalked out its own plans to counter it by working out the details of the proposed rally of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at Mandi on October 7.
Taking charge of the preparations to make the Vikas Rally a success, CM Virbhadra Singh has decided to visit Mandi, with State Congress co-in-charge Ranjeet Ranjan. The Congress on Wednesday held a meeting to prepare for the rally. All the senior leaders of party barring Power Minister Sujan Singh Pathania and Thakur Singh Bharmori were present in the meeting, which lasted around three hours. The party is said to have planned the Vikas Rally to be a reply to the BJP’s Abhaar rally addressed by Modi on Tuesday.
The party has constituted a four-member panel for organising the rally. The committee comprises HPCC vice president Harsh Mahajan, party secretary Harbhajan Singh Bhaji and Ram lal Thakur and spokesman Sanjay Chauhan. The committee will look after the arrangements for the rally and coordinate the conduct of the same. In the meantime, party co-incharge Ranjeeta Ranjan is reaching Shimla on Thursday. She will accompany CM Singh to Mandi and Kullu to see the preparations of the rally and meetings to be held there.
Mandi, being the second largest district in terms of assembly constituencies after Kangra, comprises 10 Assembly segments. The rally of Congress vice-president is being seen as a reply of Congress to the rally of PM Modi, and Rahul Gandhi’s rally is expected to set the Congress in top gear for the Assembly polls.
The rally to be organised at Paddal ground is expected to witness attendance of over fifty thousand people. Rahul Gandhi had addressed a rally in Dharamshala before this in December last year and Congress had managed to get a good crowd for it.
The district unit of Congress has been asked to arrange transport for people to come to the rally from nearby districts, including Kullu, lahaul-Spiti and Bilaspur. Congress had been facing crises of unity due to factional fight between its two tops leaders in the State in recent months.
The party high command wants to present a united face ahead of the Assembly elections, likely to be held in December this year. Replying to the charges of Modi in his rally that the Himachal Government was on bail as CM Virbhadra Singh was facing court cases, Singh said he was framed in false cases. Attributing cases against him to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the CM aid that he had been the key man behind the cases framed against him.
On the other hand, HPCC president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said PM hasd disgraced his position by touching a sub-judice matter in a public meeting.
Raising a finger on the timing of laying stones of AIIMS and IIIT in Bilaspur, Sukhu said the Centre delayed these projects just to take political advantage in the Assembly elections.