Rahul Gandhi to visit Tripura Tuesday

Agartala, March 22 (IANS) Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will visit Tripura again March 25 as part of the election campaign, a party leader said here Saturday.

"Rahul Gandhi would address an election rally in Tripura March 25. After addressing the public meeting, he would leave for West Bengal to address three gatherings," Tripura Pradesh Congress working president Ashish Saha told reporters.

Saha said: "Rahul Gandhi would be visiting all the eight states of northeastern region along with other states of the country as part of his nationwide Lok Sabha election campaign."

Gandhi is the only one among the top Congress leaders who has visited Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh.

Gandhi, however, cancelled his trip to Mizoram Wednesday in view of the ongoing assembly session there.

No schedule has been announced yet for any other senior Congress leader to visit Left-ruled Tripura and other northeastern states for campaigning.

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, party president Rajnath Singh and Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have visited several northeastern states twice.

Banerjee would again visit the northeastern region, including Tripura, April 2.

Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya will go to the polls April 9 (second phase), while Manipur will see two-phase polling April 9 and 17. Tripura will vote April 7 and 12. Assam will witness three-phase polling April 7, 12 and 24.

Mizoram and Nagaland have one Lok Sabha seat each. Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur have two seats each while Assam has 14 Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress secured 13 seats across the region in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP got four seats in Assam, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) got two seats in Tripura, Nationalist Congress Party secured one seat in Meghalaya while the Asom Gana Parishad, All India United Democratic Front, Bodoland Peoples Front and Naga People's Front (NPF) bagged one seat each.

The Congress is in power in Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, the CPI-M led Left Front rules Tripura, the NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland governs Nagaland and the Sikkim Democratic Front rules in Sikkim.