Sonia to visit Gujarat next month

New Delhi, Dec 21 (UNI) With assembly elections in Gujarat less than a year away, Congress President Sonia Gandhi will visit the state next month to address a rally of tribals and to send a strong message to the party workers to gear themselves up to face the electorate by ''exposing the misdeeds'' of the BJP government.

Ms Gandhi gave an assurance to visit Gujarat in January to a group of 45 Congress legislators from the state, who are currently in the capital to hold meetings with the top party leadership, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The delegation, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Arjun Modhwadia, met the Congress President at her 10 Janpath residence last evening.

Mr Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress President, AICC General Secretary and In-charge of Gujarat B K Hariprasad and Gujarat Pradesh Congress President Bharatsingh Solanki were among the political heavyweights of the delegation.

''We urged our leader Sonia Gandhi to address a tribal Rally at Limkheda in Panchmahal district and another rally in connection with the Satyagraha Centenary celebrations at Porbandar, and she readily accepted the invitation,'' Mr Modhwadia told UNI.

The visit has been tentatively fixed between January 20 and 25.

The delegation today had a luncheon meeting with Textiles Minister and former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, where Mr Ahmed, Mr Hariprasad and Minister of State for Railways Naranbhai J Rathwa were also present.

Mr Modhwadia, who handed over a thanksgiving letter to Ms Gandhi signed by all the 52 Congress legislators of Gujarat, said the state had benefited enormously since the installation of the UPA government at the Centre two-and-a-half years ago.

Among the most appreciable actions taken by the Centre was allocation of a Rs 10 crore corpus fund for renovating the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad and asking the Road Transport and Highways Ministry to develop the 75-km-long route from Ahmedabad to Dandi as the 'Heritage Route', he said.

In addition, the UPA government has approved construction of memorials at various places along this route and also created a Dandi Yatra Memorial at Dandi.

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