New Delhi: The Congress party’s plan to hold a mega rally in Guwahati on 26 February has now been scuttled as senior opposition leaders N. Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP and Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee have decided to give it a miss.
The development comes as yet another indication of differences among the non-Bharatiya Janata Party opposition parties trying to stitch together a pre-poll alliance before the Lok Sabha elections due in April-May.
With both the Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal chief ministers skipping the rally, it is now going to be Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s solo show in Guwahati, a senior Congress leader confirmed to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Another senior Congress leader who did not wish to be named said the Assam unit had officially announced what was earlier set to be a major opposition rally.
“There was to be some announcement related to the Citizen Amendment Bill also, but even on that issue there wasn’t consensus among the opposition parties and so it has been postponed,” the Congress leader said.
“The rally is being organised by the Pradesh Congress and now it will be a booth workers rally. Earlier it was to be a mega rally of opposition leaders but as it didn’t suit the convenience of the leaders, it will not see their participation,” said Ripun Bora, president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee.
“This will be a major rally as part of election preparation.”
Banerjee’s issues
The Congress had to redo the plan as Banerjee wasn’t keen to attend the rally after the Gandhis gave her ‘United India’ rally in West Bengal in January a miss, a third senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.
The Congress was represented at the Kolkata event by senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Officially, Banerjee’s office told ThePrint that a meeting of opposition parties is scheduled for 26 February in New Delhi and she is likely to attend it.
The opposition meeting has been called to discuss the draft common minimum programme with the other leaders who are likely to be part of the pre-poll alliance.
Naidu going to Delhi too
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is also likely to attend the 26 February meeting in New Delhi.
“A Congress delegation led by former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi had met Naidu in Amaravati last month and sought his support against the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill. They also invited Naidu to come to Guwahati,” Naidu’s office told ThePrint.
“But since he is likely to be in Delhi on 26 February, he won’t be able to attend the Guwahati rally,” it said.
What Congress is doing
Earlier this month, Gandhi had skipped the Delhi rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party, although he was in the city.
The rally was attended by several opposition leaders, including Banerjee, Naidu, Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Kanimozhi. The Congress was represented by senior leader Anand Sharma.
The Congress president, however, attended a dinner meeting of opposition leaders called by Pawar at his residence in the evening later the same day.
The opposition parties announced after the dinner meeting that they will get into a pre-poll alliance at the national level.
Now, the Assam unit of Congress has started preparations for the 26 February rally. A meeting of state unit leaders, MLAs was held on Wednesday to take stock of the rally’s preparations.
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