Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Jammu and Srinagar on Wednesday evening for key meetings over preparation for the upcoming assembly elections in the UT. Congress leaders will hold a meeting with all district delegates at Radisson Hotel, Rajbagh in Srinagar at 10.30 am tomorrow and by 2 pm he will fly to Jammu, they added. They will return to Delhi tomorrow evening, the sources said.
Earlier some sources in the know said that today's visit of Congress leaders has been cancelled.
The duo may meet NC chief Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah to discuss a pre-poll alliance. Congress is making efforts to bring all anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties together to form a formidable coalition to pose a challenge to the BJP in the UT.
The visit comes after Kharge and Gandhi met general secretaries, in-charges and screening committee members of four poll-bound states on Monday.
"On 21st and 22nd August, Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge ji and Leader of Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi ji will be visiting Jammu and Srinagar for key meetings in preparation for the upcoming assembly elections," Congress general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said on X.
Congress national general secretary Gulam Ahmed Mir on Monday said in Jammu that "Kharge ji and Rahul ji will be visiting Jammu and Kashmir for two days, starting tomorrow. They will arrive in Jammu tomorrow afternoon".
Mir said that during their stay, they will engage in extensive meetings with leaders and workers in both Jammu and Srinagar, aiming to energise and strengthen the party cadre.
After their interaction in Jammu, they will fly to Srinagar on Wednesday evening to continue their interactions with the cadre there. On Thursday, they will hold a press conference in Srinagar.
After the meeting on Monday, Venugopal had told reporters that the leaders deliberated upon preparation for elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra, and guidelines for selecting candidates.
Also newly-appointed Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra said on Monday that the party is open to talks with like-minded parties to strike a "respectable alliance" for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls but the parameters for such a tie-up would be different from the Lok Sabha elections.
The three-phase elections to the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir assembly will be held on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The Election Commission has also announced that elections to the 90-member Haryana assembly will be held on October 1 and results for both the polls will be declared on October 4.
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