Congress leader Rahul Gandhi On a day the Election Commission of India announced the date for Karnataka Assembly election, the Congress on Wednesday announced that party leader Rahul Gandhi will participate in a rally in Kolar in the first week of April.
Rahul had delivered the controversial speech in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Kolar, where he made the remark on the “Modi surname”. The defamation case filed by a Gujarat BJP MLA following that speech led to his conviction, and subsequent disqualification as a Lok Sabha member.
This will be the second rally Rahul will attend in the poll-bound Karnataka, after the one in Belagavi, where the party had announced unemployment allowance for the youth as a pre-election promise.
Congress working president Saleem Ahmed told The Indian Express that the Kolar rally will be on the theme “Satyameva Jayathe (truth alone shall prevail)” and will be used as a forum to protest the manner in which Rahul was disqualified from Lok Sabha.
“The tentative date for the rally is April 5,” Ahmed said. He added that the venue is being finalised.
This will be the Congress leader’s first rally in the state following his conviction and subsequent disqualification as an MP.
Congress leader K H Muniyappa had on Tuesday said that more than 1 lakh people are expected to take part in the rally in Kolar. “The BJP is creating a situation where the survival of democracy is being called into question. We have to put an end to this,” Muniyappa said.
Residents and party workers from a few districts of old Mysuru region will participate in the rally, the former MP said.