New Delhi:Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will visit Mysuru in Karnataka on October 3 and will pray at the well-known Chamundeshwari temple, sources said on Sunday. According to sources, the visit ahead of the Mysuru Dasara festival on October 4 and 5 holds cultural significance in the southern state.
The Mysuru Dasara is popular across the country as well and Sonia's visit is expected to project a positive image of the opposition party ahead of the assembly polls in 2023. The sources further said that the October 6 visit of the Congress president to Bellary was still being worked out.
For Sonia, Bellary is significant as she had made her Lok Sabha debut in 1999 from the parliamentary constituency along with the traditional Nehru-Gandhi bastion Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. She had taken over as party president in 1998 and was elected party chief in 2000. During her Bellary visit, Sonia may address a gathering to slam the ruling party.
In fact, when the Congress chief had announced the nationwide yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir at the Udaipur Chintan shivir in May, she had noted that all leaders would take part in the foot march. Her joining the yatra would charge up the workers, said state party leaders.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and one of the presidential nominees for the October 17 polls, is also expected to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra along with Sonia Gandhi. Kharge hails from Karnataka and his presence will boost the party’s prospects in the assembly polls next year.
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Over the past year, the Congress has been pitching itself as an option against the ruling BJP saying that alleged corruption in the state government had dented the image of the southern state, whose capital Bengaluru is known as an IT hub. Already, Rahul Gandhi is in the state as part of the yatra, which will pass through the state over the next two weeks.
The yatra, which had received unprecedented public support in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, has prompted the Karnataka unit to make elaborate plans to capitalize on the massive public contact program. “They are neither patriots nor protectors of religion. They promise to protect your houses but take away your 40 per cent money. What would you call such people? They are 40 per cent thieves,” Rahul said on Saturday while addressing a gathering.
According to party insiders, his attacks on the BJP are going to sharpen over the coming days in response to the ruling party’s targeting of the leader and the yatra. Before the yatra entered Karnataka at Gundlupet, the BJP workers allegedly tore away the giant posters of Rahul Gandhi put up by the state unit along the yatra route.
“If they are going to be aggressive, we are prepared. If their IT cell will target us, we are prepared. We want them to attack us so that we can expose them,” Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said.
According to AICC Secretary BM Sandeep Kumar, “the yatra will provide a major boost to the party’s campaign ahead of the 2023 polls. It will help us showcase that the Congress is raising the issues impacting the people like jobs, price rise and social division. The yatra will help the Congress present itself as the voice of the people.”
