Rahul Gandhi

Agartala, Oct. 17: Rahul Gandhi will arrive in Tripura on a daylong visit on November 8 to boost the efforts of Tripura PCC to unseat the ruling Left Front in the Assembly elections barely 18 months away.

Rahul will arrive at Agartala in the morning and will fly in a chopper to Dharmangar subdivisional town in North Tripura to address a mass rally.

He will address the day’s second rally at Udaipur, headquarters of South Tripura district, before leaving the state the same day.

Disclosing this, PCC president and party MLA Surajit Dutta said he had requested AICC general secretary in charge of Tripura, Luiziano Falerio, to arrange this visit to mobilise the Congress youth force in the run-up to the next Assembly polls.

“Falerio informed me last night that Rahul has agreed to address two rallies in Dharmanagar and Udaipur to stimulate the PCC’s organisational initiative and for the mobilisation of the youth. He is very busy, otherwise, we would also organise a road show, but on November 8 this will not be possible,” Dutta said.

He added that AICC secretary K. Jaykumar would come for five days to Tripura on October 29 and help prepare the ground for Rahul’s visit.

“Jaykumar will also address workers’ meetings and mass rallies in different parts of the state besides supervising and coordinating our groundwork for Rahul’s visit. Rahulji is likely to be accompanied by Falerio,” he said.

Rahul had visited Tripura once earlier on October 6, 2009, to participate in a programme of the Youth Congress.

Dutta added that AICC was serious about contesting the next Assembly elections in Tripura well prepared in order to ensure the defeat of the Left Front and that is why preparation has been set in motion well in advance.

“The AICC is convinced that if Left Front can be defeated in Bengal and Kerala, they can be defeated in Tripura also and this is the reason why we have started work in the right earnest.”

Dutta dismissed speculation about a change of guard in the PCC as “baseless and malicious” and said he has been assured of continuance as PCC president till the next Assembly polls.

“There will be no change in the PCC or in any other wing of our party. This has been confirmed by the AICC and these speculations are actually wild stories circulated by disgruntled elements. In the Congress, factional division always existed, but this does not stop the progress of the party and we will fight the CPM together,” Dutta said.

He added that the organisational network has been set up in nooks and corners of the state by constituting block and district committees and the AICC was also looking into the organisational structure of frontal organisations.

Dutta blamed the Left Front and its partisan administration for attempts to falsify the electoral roll, but said Congress workers have been put on alert all over the state to prevent rigging.

“To prevent machinations of the CPM, we will approach the Election Commission in Delhi to conduct the polls in Tripura like they were conducted in Bengal and I am sure they will respond positively,” Dutta said.