In a counter to BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's aggressive campaign in Amethi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will be holding a roadshow in Varanasi on May 10, the last day of campaigning in the parliamentary constituency from where Modi is contesting.
Sources said Rahul will be in Varanasi on Saturday for the roadshow.
The decision on Rahul's roadshow in Varanasi was taken after > Modi held a rally in the Congress vice president’s constituency on May 5 and targetted the Gandhi family.
Polling was held on Wednesday in Amethi where Rahul is locked in a triangular contest with BJP’s television-star-turned politician Smriti Irani and Aam Aadmi Party’s Kumar Vishwas.
Modi’s rally in Amethi also came on the last day of campaigning for the eighth phase of polling and was an attempt to give a push to the BJP candidate’s poll prospects in the >pocket borough of the Gandhi family at a time when the Congress is facing a difficult election nationwide, particularly in central and eastern UP.
Rahul's road show in Varanasi is being seen as a way of getting back at Modi who had broken the unwritten code that no top political leader campaigns in the political backyard of a top rival.
At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Shashi Tharoor said “we do not have any official word on it” but added that it is natural that Gandhi would like to be active in the final phase.
