GUWAHATI: The Congress’s Assam poll campaign will get a boost when party leader Rahul Gandhi visits the state on Sunday.
He will address a rally in Sivasagar before flying back to Delhi. His sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will also address some of the mega rallies the Congress has planned in the run-up to the polls. “We are expecting a large turnout at the Sivasagar rally,” Pradesh Congress president Ripun Bora said.
The Congress hopes to gain from Gandhi’s fight against a number of issues including the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
“Most regional leaders from the state including Akhil Gogoi and Lurinjyoti Gogoi had met him to apprise him of their concerns if Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) is upheld in Parliament. Respecting the sentiments of the people of Assam, Rahul Gandhi and our party opposed CAB in Parliament. Had we been in power at the Centre in 2019, the CAB would not have become CAA. Rahul Gandhi would have ensured it,” Congress leader Bobeeta Sarma said.
The Congress is a national party with a regional outlook and who can best understand it than Rahul Gandhi whose father the late Rajiv Gandhi had signed the Assam Accord to bring peace in Assam, she added.
Gandhi is visiting the state amidst a two-week-long bus yatra that the Congress has launched from four places to “save Assam”. The bus campaign is crisscrossing the state with the party leaders meeting voters and discussing their grievances and issues.
“With these bus yatras, the top leadership of the party shall fan out into the remotest corners of the state and discuss with the people the state’s issues and problems,” said Lok Sabha member Pradyut Bordoloi, who is the chairperson of the party’s campaign committee. “Today Assam is facing a grave crisis. To save it from this crisis, we have to go to the people for a new imagination of our future,” he said.