Rahul Gandhi to kick off Cong poll campaign in Bengal Saturday

AICC president Rahul Gandhi will officially kick off the party's Lok Sabha poll campaign in West Bengal on Saturday with a rally at Chachal in Malda district.

"Campaigning has started in 11 seats where we have announced candidates. But tomorrow our party president Rahul Gandhi will officially launch the poll campaign of Bengal. He will also give out a message for our party workers," state Congress president Somen Mitra said here on Friday.

The rally comes in the backdrop of the Left Front- Congress seat sharing deal falling apart in the state and both the sides deciding to go it alone.

The Congress so far has announced candidates in 11 Lok Sabha seats of the state including Raiganj and Murshidabad which were won by CPI(M) in 2014 general elections.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front on the other hand has announced candidates in 40 seats including Malda North and Jangipur Lok Sabha that the Congress had won last time.

The Congress had emerged victorious in four seats in the state in 2014. Apart from Malda North and Jangipur, the party bagged Malda South and Baharampur parliamentary seats.

The venue of Rahul Gandhi's rally falls under the Malda North constituency. The Congress MP of the seat, Mausam Benazir Noor, has quit the party and is contesting on a Trinamool Congress ticket this time.

Noor, who is the niece of the late Congress stalwart A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, has been a two-time MP of the Congress.

Malda has been known as a stronghold of the Congress for several decades due to developmental work done by Ghani Khan Chowdhury during his tenure as railway minister in the '80s.