Bengaluru: It is a crucial election in Karnataka and it is the first time that three members of the Nehru-Gandhi family have jumped into the election campaign fray in a state as party leaders to woo the voters to bring the party to power in the southern state.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have campaigned extensively in Karnataka and Sonia Gandhi will address a public meeting in Hubbali on Saturday.
Karnataka has a long connection with the Nehru-Gandhi family and has been a “comeback territory” in the past.
Indira Gandhi made a political comeback from Chikmagalur in Karnataka in a bypoll in 1978. Sonia Gandhi also fought from Ballari in the state in her debut election in which she was also in the fray from Amethi.
Karnataka is crucial for Congress as it can mark its revival for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. If BJP is defeated in Karnataka, the party will not be in power in any southern state.
With Rahul Gandhi having been disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a criminal defamation case and the election debacles Congress faced in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress is pinning strong hopes on Karnataka where it has strong state leadership.
The party feels that a win in Karnataka will give it a massive boost to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the 2024 general elections and emerge as a fulcrum of opposition unity.
Rahul Gandhi has so far held 17 rallies and roadshows in Karnataka, while his sister Priyanka Gandhi has done 19 rallies.
The campaign for May 10 polls will continue at the same pace in the next four days as well.
Apart from Rahul-Priyanka’s road shows and rallies, Rahul Gandhi is also likely to hold a press conference.
Sonia Gandhi has not campaigned in any state elections in the recent past.
The former Congress president did the last election rally in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in her parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli.
She gave a speech at the Bharat Bachao rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on December 14, 2019.
The area around Hubballi is seen to a “laboratory of Hindutva politics” in Karnataka and the Congress has chosen this place for Sonia Gandhi’s rally.
Apart from members of the Gandhi family, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Karnataka, has been campaigning in the state for the last 20 days.
The party’s Karnataka in-charge Randeep Surjewala has been camping there for the past two months with an army of spokespersons.
While Priyanka Gandhi had campaigned in her mother’s and brother’s constituencies in Uttar Pradesh before her formal entry into politics, it is the first time that the three members of Nehru-Gandhi family will be part of the campaign as full-time leaders of the Congress.
The Karnataka assembly elections will be held in a single phase on May 10, with the counting of votes scheduled for May 13.
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