Priyanka may address rally in Gujarat; CWC meet on Feb 28

Days after her foray in active politics as Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may address a poll rally in Gujarat on February 28, a party leader said Monday.

February 28 is also when a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) will be held here. The last CWC meet in Gujarat was held 58 years ago, the leader said.

Priyanka's brother and party president Rahul Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi will be present at the rally in BJP stronghold and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state.

The "Sankalp Rally", to be held at Adalaj, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, is being perceived by Congress leaders as a major morale booster to the party in the state where it has been out of power for almost three decades.

The February 28 meeting of the CWC, the highest decision-making body of the Congress, will be followed by the rally the same day.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh will also attend the rally, Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda told reporters here.

"I am glad that Rahul Gandhi accepted our proposal to hold the CWC meet here to mark the 150thbirth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi," he said. The last CWC in Gujarat was held in 1961, he added.

Senior Congress leaders will attend a prayer meet at the Gandhi Ashram here before attending the CWC meeting, to be held at Sardar Patel memorial building Thursday morning.

"They will pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and the 40 CRPF personnel who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack.

This will be Rahul Gandhi's second Gujarat visit this month. On February 14, he had addressed a rally at Dharampur in Valsad district.

In the 1961 CWC meeting held in Bhavnagar, the party had passed a resolution to strengthen the Panchayati Raj system and to take up balanced development through the third Five-Year Plan. The resolution also talked about strengthening unity in the country, Chavda said.