CWC meet, Priyanka Gandhi rally in Ahmedabad to take place on March 12

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and a public rally, with party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi among the key speakers, will be held on March 12.

The CWC is Congress's highest decision-making body and, according to informed sources, the party's strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well as probable candidates would be discussed at the meeting.

The meeting and rally, which had earlier been slated to be held on February 28, was postponed due to the security situation after the IAF air strikes in Pakistan in wake of the Pulwama attacks that left 40 CRPF troopers dead.

Top leaders, including party President Rahul Gandhi, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Priyanka Gandhi, who was recently named General Secretary, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, party treasurer Ahmed Patel, among others will be present at the meeting next Tuesday.

"The meeting will be held on March 12, the day Mahatma Gandhi launched his famous Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram," said state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi.

Besides the CWC meeting, a massive rally where Priyanka Gandhi is expected to deliver her first public address after joining politics full time, will also be held.

"The CWC and the public rally is being organized in the same way as planned on February 28," Doshi added.

Congress sources disclosed that it was Rahul Gandhi's idea to have the CWC meeting as well as public rally in Gujarat to take the battle right into Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah's home turf.