SHILLONG: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will kickstart the Congress campaign for the Meghalaya assembly polls on Tuesday. As part of his campaign, Rahul will on Tuesday afternoon address a party workers’ meet at Chutwakhu Social Club in District West Jaintia Hills. In the evening, the Congress president will attend a Meghalaya PCC Executive Meeting in District East Khasi Hills.
In the evening, he will attend the event “Celebration of Peace: An Evening Celebrating Meghalaya’s Way of Life’. He will attend a meeting to pay a Special Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi” at Polo Ground, Shillong. On Wednesday, Rahul will meet with various delegations besides holding interaction with traditional village Heads at East Khasi Hills. He will also hold an Interaction with Women Leaders at St. Edmund School in District East Khasi Hills. Election to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly will be held on February 27.
Beef ban issue key poll plank of Congress
In poll-bound Christian-dominated Meghalaya, Congress is going to make the beef ban issue their key poll plank, senior congress leader said. A day ahead of the visit of the Congress President Rahul Gandhi here, the state leadership said that they will raise the beef ban issue in full throttle in run up to the elections, since Meghalaya is the leading beef consuming state in the country.
” Definitely, we are going to raise the issue of beef ban in all public platforms. The issue is not yet over court has just stayed the order of centre notification,” Vincent Pala, Working President of Congress state unit said in a press conference.
It may be mentioned here that after Centre notification banning cattle trade across the county there were fur ore in the state and many BJP leaders from the state opposing the ban deserted the party.
Meghalaya is one of the four states in the country where Congress is in power and it is facing huge anti-incumbency after ruling the state for continuous nine year. “As the time is passing by the anti-incumbency factor is coming down. We are sure of returning to power,” Pala added. But political commentators said that, Congress this time around faces an uphill task since its own house is not in order. The party faced huge rebellion ahead of the announcement of election dates as many as seven sitting legislators deserted the party. UNI