After 4 yrs, Sonia to address public meeting in Karnataka's Hubli today

Bengaluru: With just three days left for the campaigning in Karnataka, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be addressing a public meeting in the southern state on Saturday along with her son and party leader Rahul Gandhi.

According to Congress, Sonia Gandhi will be addressing a joint rally with her son in Hubli in the evening.

The area around Hubli has remained a laboratory for Hindutva politics and the Congress has chosen this region for Sonia Gandhi's public meeting.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi will be addressing two more public meetings -- in Yamakanmardi and Chikodi in Karnataka's Belagavi -- before joining his mother in the third public meeting.

This will be the first election public meeting of Sonia Gandhi, who is currently the Chairperson of Congress Parliamentary Party after May 2019.

Sonia Gandhi addressed the last electoral public meeting in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli on May 2, 2019.

Her last speech at a public meeting was on December 14, 2019 in Delhi's Ramlila Maidan where she spoke in Bharat Bachao Rally.

However, due to health reasons she had participated in several programmes of the party, but has stayed away from the election campaigning and public meetings.

However, Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been campaigning aggressively in karnataka and both of them have jointly held over 40 public meetings and roadshows in the state.

Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, has not raked up the Adani issue in the Karnataka Assembly polls and has kept his campaigning focused on local issues of corruption, unemployment, etc.

Besides the Gandhi family, even Congress leadership has been holding aggressive campaigning in the state.

The ruling BJP is facing stiff competition from the Congress in the southern state. The Congress has been campaigning aggressively in Karnataka and has cornered the BJP on issues of corruption and several others.

The Congress announced several promises for the people of the state in its manifesto. The party also promised to repeal, within one year of coming to power, "all unjust laws and other anti-people laws" passed by the BJP government in the state.

To woo the voters in the state, Congress announced Gruha Jyothi (200 units of free electricity), Gruha Lakshmi- Rs 2,000 monthly to every woman head of the family, Anna Bhagya - 10 kg of food grains of their choice (among rice, ragi, jowar, millet) to every person in a BPL family.

It also promised that the party is committed to take a firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste or religion. It also said that it will ban any organisation like Bajrang Dal and PFI, if they try to spread hatred.

BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have cornered Congress on its decision to ban Bajrang Dal in Karnataka.

Elections for the 224-member Assembly is scheduled on May 10 and counting of votes will take place on May 13.