Rahul Gandhi in Himachal Pradesh: Congress vice-president will launch Congress' poll campaign in Mandi

Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is all set to launch the Congress’ election campaign from Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s stronghold of Mandi on Saturday. On Friday, Virbhadra along with Congress’ in-charge for the state Sushil Kumar Shinde and co-incharge Ranjeeta Ranjan, reviewed the arrangements for party vice-president Rahul’s rally at the Paddal ground in Mandi. Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to address the “Vikas se Vijay” rally of the Congress at Mandi. Singh, Shinde and Ranjan reached Mandi from Kullu, inspected the venue of the rally and issued necessary instructions. [caption id=“attachment_4118895” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] The chief minister held a meeting with government officials and Congress workers and directed them to ensure adequate parking facilities at the venue of the rally, so that traffic was not disrupted and no inconvenience was caused to the public. On Thursday, Virbhadra said that Rahul’s rally would be bigger than that of Modi in Bilaspur. “People would witness the crowd themselves. We won’t give exaggerated figures as many other political parties do. But the crowd would certainly be bigger than the gathering at BJP rally addressed by Modi in Bilaspur on 3 October,” he said after attending an event on Maharshi Valmiki Jayanti in Mandi. Modi had addressed a BJP rally at Paddal on 8 October last year, while he addressed a meeting at Shimla on 27 April this year and at Bilaspur on 3 October. The BJP has criticised the Congress government in the state for organising the rally and “misusing” the official machinery. “The Congress does not have the courage to take out a rally and that is why, a government rally is being held, for which all the ministers, chairpersons and vice chairpersons ofthe boards and corporations have been asked to mobilise people,” state BJP vice-president Ganesh Dutt alleged. “It is a betrayal of the people of the state and acceptance of defeat,” Dutt added. With inputs from PTI