Sonia Gandhi falls ill, cuts short roadshow in Varanasi, PM Modi wishes her quick recovery

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday suddenly took ill during a road show and had to call off her Varanasi roadshow mid-way_._  Her flight to Delhi has been delayed as she is being treated at Varanasi Airport’s VIP Lounge and is put on a drip, reported ANI. Congress sources said that Gandhi was feeling better and will return to Delhi by the special plane which had brought her to Varanasi. [caption id=“attachment_2930558” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Congress president Sonia Gandhi during the roadshow in UP on Tuesday. PTI[/caption] Sonia Gandhi was in Varanasi, PM Modi’s turf, to kickstart party’s campaign ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls in 2017. Gandhi stood in a vehicle with an open sunroof and waved at the crowd which cheered and raised slogans against the Modi government, before taking a break. Later it was declared that the Congress president would not continue with the road show as she was unwell. Sources said Gandhi cancelled her planned visit to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in the evening to offer prayers and was returning to Delhi. According to Congress sources, Gandhi was suffering from viral fever but had decided to go ahead with the roadshow as she was not inclined to cancel it at the last minute. Expressing concern over the health of Gandhi, PM Modi said:

Earlier in the day, thousands of Congress supporters and workers had taken part in the roadshow from the Circuit House to Englishiya Line, a distance of about eight kilometres. The march began with Gandhi garlanding the statue of BR Ambedkar at the Circuit House and the marchers crisscrossed lanes and bylanes of the temple town. She came out of her vehicle several times to accept the greetings of the cheering supporters, including groups of Muslim women. As the road show passed through several localities, rose petals were showered on Gandhi and her cavalcade from adjoining buildings.

Besides the party’s chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit, AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, state party chief Raj Babbar and senior leaders Pramod Tiwari and Sanja Singh accompanied Gandhi. This was Gandhi’s first visit to Varanasi after Modi became prime minister. Congress has launched a campaign “dard-e-Banaras” to highlight lack of development in Varanasi, which Modi is representing for over two years in the Lok Sabha. Congress has been out of power for 27 years in Uttar Pradesh and is projecting that the state has gone from bad to worse in these years through a campaign, called ‘27 Saal, UP Behaal’. Varanasi is a key place in eastern Uttar Pradesh having some 160 of the 403 Assembly constituencies in the state. Congress had only won two seats – Amethi and Rae Bareli – in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, while BJP and its ally Apna Dal secured 73 seats out of total 80. The UP Assembly elections outcome will also have ramifications for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has been roped in by Congress to assist the UPCC in the Assembly polls. Kishor had planned the campaign strategy of Modi in Lok Sabha polls and Nitish Kumar in the Bihar Assembly polls. With inputs from PTI