Congress president Sonia Gandhi will launch her nationwide election campaign in Assam along with party Vice president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh by the end of the month.
The BJP has assigned most of its top-notch campaigners for electioneering in Assam.
An overwhelming response to Rahul Gandhi’s two-day electioneering in Assam last month has prompted the Congress leadership to choose Assam for Sonia Gandhi to kick-start the poll campaign.
Congress sources say that Sonia Gandhi is likely to launch her first election campaign rally from Lakhimpur in eastern Assam on March 28, while Rahul Gandhi and the prime minister will hold rallies in different areas of the state around the same time.
Dr Singh is scheduled to address his first election rally in Assam in Tezpur on March 29 while Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to start campaigning in Dibrugarh on March 27.
The Congress faces a challenge in the eastern Assam strongholds of Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur. All these constituencies go for polls on April 7.
In Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur the Congress has fielded Union Ministers Paban Singh
Ghatowar and Ranee Narah. Former union minister Bijoy K Handique is contesting
from Jorhat while Congress MLA Bhupen Bora is contesting from Tezpur constituency.
The BJP has fielded Rameswar Teli, Assam state president Sarbananda Sonowal, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and R P Sharma from Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Jorhat and Tezpur constituencies.
Meanwhile, the BJP has announced that its top campaigners will hit the trail in Assam.
It has assigned Narendra Modi, L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murali Manohar Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhera Raje, Raman Singh, Manohar Parikar, Mukhter Abbas Naqvi, Gopinath Munde, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ananta Kumar, Smriti Irani, Shahnawaz Hussain and few others for campaigning in Assam.
Image: Congress president Sonia Gandhi
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