Congress’s election campaign suffered a temporary setback ahead of the last phase of voting in Jammu and Kashmir on October 1. In fact, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi could not reach Jammu. He was to address rallies in Ramgarh and Chhamb. “We (Congress workers) have been told that his (Rahul Gandhi’s) plane did not take off from Delhi due to bad weather,” said Sanjeev Sharma, president of Samba Congress and media coordinator of the Ramgarh rally.
According to the Indian Express report, Sanjeev Sharma further said that AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will reach Jammu on Saturday and address two rallies in Billawar and Bishnah. These rallies will be the first rallies of Priyanka Gandhi’s election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir. It is being said that Congress has united its Jammu organization and strengthened its campaign strategy, although infighting still continues. Meanwhile, BJP’s aggressive election strategy has put Congress under even more pressure.
Congress ally and National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah on Thursday expressed concern over the Jammu operation. He said that the Congress campaign could not gain momentum till five days before the third phase. Abdullah said, “We have given a lot of seats to Congress in Jammu, but unfortunately, Congress has not performed as we expected them to in the plains of Jammu.” Due to this failure of Congress, the party’s campaign to perform better in the last phase has weakened, whereas BJP is currently standing in the field with full strength.
After the second phase of voting on September 25, the Congress attempted to organize its unit in Jammu and Kashmir, with rallies for Rahul and Priyanka announced ahead of the final phase of the elections. Of the 40 assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir that will go to polls in the last phase on October 1, 24 are in Jammu’s Udhampur, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. Congress is contesting on 21 of these seats.
