RAHUL LAUNCHES LS 2019 POLL CAMPAIGN FROM VALSAD

With Rahul Gandhi set to launch the Congress Lok Sabha 2019 poll campaign from Dharampur in South Gujarat on Thursday, the BJP moved in Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from neighbouring Maharashtra a day earlier in a bid to counter the domino effect of the hugely successful party rally in Lucknow on February 11, flowing onto the prime minister's home state.

Buoyed by it's vastly improved poll showing in Gujarat and victories in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, the party firing on all cylinders after the Lucknow rally, has decided to take the battle into their principal rival's stronghold.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will launch the Congress poll campaign from Dharampur in Valsad district of South Gujarat on February 14. He will address a rally and is expected to make a strong statement against land acquisition for the Bullet Train. The subject is a sore point with defiant farmers who are losing their fertile fields and are locked in a battle with the government, the matter now awaiting judgment in the High Court.

There is a move also to hold the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in South Gujarat to rub home the importance the Congress gives to the state. The decision to chose Gujarat over Congress-ruled states is a pointer in this direction. There is another aspect to the Valsad district rally of Rahul on February 14. Mrs Indira Gandhi (1980), Rajiv Gandhi (1984) and former party chief Mrs Sonia Gandhi (2004) have all chosen to launch Lok Sabha election campaigns from here which have brought the party to power. Rahul has chosen to follow in their footsteps with the Thursday meeting.

Though Fadnavis presence at Dharampur was announced by BJP only on Tuesday, the BJP Gujarat general secretary, Bharatsinh Parmar was at pains pointing out that their meeting had been fixed earlier than the Congress rally. The Congress party had announced it's ''jan akrosh'' rally on February 6.

The Congress, on it''s part, has attached great importance to this rally and the state unit has galvanised it's 75 legislators to ensure a good turn-out. Both Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda and leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani have been camping in the district headquarters of Valsad to oversee the preparations.