The Congress chief and AICC president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to hold a rally in Tripura on March 20 next in the run-up to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee officials said here today.

This will be the first Tripura visit of Gandhi after being elected as AICC president. He has recently appointed Tripura royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarman as the state chief of congress party replacing senior party leader and former minister Birjit Sinha to rejuvenate the party and stimulate congress rank and file.

According to schedule, Gandhi will have separate meeting with Pradyot Kishore and Tripura Pradesh congress committee leaders followed by addressing a mass rally in Agartala to kick off the campaign for upcoming Lok Sabha election.

"With the appointment of new state chief, congress has got a boost and several senior leaders including former chief minister and incumbent health minister of BJP Samir Ranjan Barman have joined in the party and many more will join soon. BJP will face a real election this time in Tripura," said TPCC leader Rahul Saha.

He however, stated that regional tribal parties have also been facing the erosion after Maharaja Pradyot became Pradesh congress committee president. A sizable number of supports of BJP's electoral partner in the government Indigenous Peoples' Front of Tripura (IPFT) are now ready to join in congress under the leadership of Maharaja.

"A wave of happiness has been sweeping across hills of Tripura, as the indigenous people got the real leader now and hundreds of tribals cutting across party affiliation have joined the rallies so far Maharaja addressed in last few days," Saha stated.

The sources in congress party informed that Rahul Gandhi has accepted the invitation of Maharaja and agreed to address a rally here to further boost up the morale of the workers and local leaders ahead of Lok Sabha poll. The party has also decided to bring AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi in the state to address similar rally after Rahul Gandhi's visit.

TPCC leaders however, claimed that party has already initiated the process of selecting candidates for both the Lok Sabha seats in Tripura considering their popularity, acceptance, commitment and win-ability. Moreover, a group of influential tribal leaders of other parties including BJP would soon be joined in congress, they added.

Meanwhile, there has been an impressive gathering since this morning in tribal autonomous district council (ADC) headquarter Khumlung where Maharaja Pradyot Kishore is scheduled to address a rally in order to keep the issue alive the United Indigenous Peoples Forum (UIPF) of Tripura, a conglomerate of regional parties, which has been fight Citizenship Amendment Bill.

The rally will open the two-day conference of UIPF where former ULFA leader Arvind Rajkhowa is scheduled to join. The leaders from all tribal based regional parties in the state will attend the conference to discuss on the contentious citizenship amendment bill.

The UIPF has also invited Deputy Chief Minister of Tripura Jishnu Dev Varma and CPI(M) MP in Lok Sabha Jiten Chowdhury and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga for the conference.