New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is back in action and will campaign for party nominees in Maharashtra’s Solapur and Amravati Lok Sabha seat on April 24.
“Rahul Gandhi will address rallies in Amravati and Solapur on April 24. The Congress has a strong chance on both the seats,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
Rahul had taken a break from his hectic campaign schedule a few days ago as he was not well. As a result, he could not address rallies in Satna and Ranchi on April 21 and had to cancel his three rallies in Kerala on April 22.
The Congress has become hopeful in Solapur seat where state unit working president Prainiti Shinde is pitted against BJP’s Ram Satpute. In an interesting development, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate in Solapur Rahul Gaikwad withdrew from the contest on April 22 saying he did not want to be the reason for division of votes which may lead to a BJP win as it was more important to save the Constitution drafted by BR Ambedkar.
In the previous 2019 national polls, the VBA had got 1.7 lakh votes in Solapur and if a large part of it shifts to the Congress, it will be a big boost for Praniti, said party insiders.
BR Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar heads the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and had been in talks with the Congress-Shiv Sena UBT-NCP-SP for a seat-sharing arrangement. He has even addressed the INDIA bloc rally in Mumbai on March 17 but later fell out of the opposition alliance which was not ready to give him six seats.
“The VBA nominee realized he was not in the contest and took a wise step of pulling out. The Congress will gain from his withdrawal,” said Dua.
Prakash Ambedkar is contesting from the Akola seat which has a triangular contest between Congress’ Abhay Patil and BJP’s Anup Dhotre.
In the previous 2014 and 2019 national polls, the Congress had fielded Hedayatullah Patel in Akola which helped the BJP polarize the electorate and win the seat. “This time the grand old party has fielded a Maratha Abhay Patil. The results would be surprising,” said Dua.
AICC minority department head Imran Pratapgarhi, a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra, campaigned in favour of the party nominee in Akola on April 22 and urged the voters from the majority and minority communities to stay united.
In Amravati seat the Congress nominee Balwant Wankhede, a sitting MLA, is pitted against BJP’s sitting MP Navneet Rana. VBA has fielded Prajakta Pillewan as its nominee.
The opposition MVA is working on the ground, said Congress insiders as they cited the recent joint rally in Amravati addressed by Shiv Sena UBT leader Uddhav Thackeray, NCP-SP leader Sharad Pawar and AICC functionary Mukul Wasnik.
Before that, AICC secretary Ashish Dua addressed a joint rally with Uddhav Thackeray in the Buldhana seat in the Vidarbha region which is witnessing a contest between the two Senas. Shiv Sena UBT nominee Narendra Khedekar is pitted against Shiv Sena Shinde’s Prataprao Jadhav.
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