Top Congress leaders, Members of Parliament and legislators from various states will be present at the party’s Hain Taiyaar Hum (We Are Ready) rally to be held in Nagpur on Thursday. The event will kicking off the principal opposition party’s campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The rally, being held to mark the 138th Foundation Day of the party, will be addressed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other top leaders of the party.
All roads led to Nagpur for the Congress on Wednesday as party leaders and workers from all over the country were headed to the city in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. Around 500 leaders, including MPs and MLAs from various states, will take part in the rally. The party expects around 10 lakh workers to be present in the rally. Party leaders are calling the event to be held at Nagpur’s Azad Maidan a ‘mega rally’, saying it will be an apt way of declaring the party’s readiness for the Lok Sabha elections.
Among the talking points for the leaders at the rally will be issues of unemployment, price rise, the growing rich-poor divide, and the allegedly undemocratic and authoritarian manner of functioning of the central government. The rally will set the tone for the party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, and it remains to be seen if the issue of caste census, which it is felt did not enthuse the voters in the just concluded assembly elections, will be talked about at the event.
The Congress’s decision to hold the rally in Nagpur, where the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s headquarters are situated, is aimed at sending across a message to the RSS-BJP. The party is also hoping to capitalise on the rally and build momentum for its efforts to maximise its chances in the Vidarbha region, which was once the party’s bastion.
The party’s decision to appoint Vijay Wadettiwar, who belongs to the region, as its leader in the Maharashtra assembly was also seen as an effort in that direction. Vidarbha, which witnesses a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP, has 62 assembly segments and 11 Lok Sabha seats.
