Congress' Gujarat poll campaign to start on September 5; first candidate list by September 15

Congress today announced that its campaign for Gujarat Assembly elections will be launched by Rahul Gandhi on September 5.

Candidate selection is on and the first list will be out before September 15, party General Secretary KC Venugopal said.

The Congress on Wednesday launched a 90-day poll programme in Gujarat.


The party's campaign will be launched on a massive scale during Gandhi's visit to Ahmedabad, Venugopal said.

Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit the election-bound state ahead of the launch of the party's "Bharat Jodo Yatra", which is slated to begin on September 7.

The yatra will be a mass outreach programme covering 12 states and two UTs. The march will cover around 3,500 km and is likely to be completed in about 150 days.

Rahul Gandhi had last visited Gujarat on May 10 and addressed a "Adivasi Satyagrah Rally" in Dahod. During that trip, Gandhi had met party MLAs and talked with tribal leaders.

A subsequent visit had to be cancelled due to the ED's summons to him and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.

In Gujarat, the Congress party has been out of power for almost three decades.