Bhubaneswar, April 29: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth and Reddy will hold an election rally in Odisha’s Rayagada district on May 3, Friday, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) said on Monday.

Bordering Andhra Pradesh, Rayagada which comes under Koraput Lok Sabha constituency, has socio-cultural affinities with the undivided Andhra Pradesh as it has got a sizable number of Telugu-speaking population.

Apart from the party's Koraput, Behrampur and Nabarangpur Lok Sabha candidates, thousands of Congress workers and leaders from Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri and Gajapati districts will join the rally, sources informed.

Congress which ruled Odisha for more than four decades, is now the third major force in Odisha politics after the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party. Its vote share in the state dipped to 16 per cent in 2019. Of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state, it could win only one seat — Koraput — in 2019. In South Odisha, the party could win only two assembly seats – Jeypore in Koraput district and Mohana in Gajapati district. Though the grand old party won only nine of the 147 assembly seats in the state with a vote share of only 16 per cent, its vote share in South Odisha stood at 25 per cent.

“We will win at least 40 seats in south and western Odisha districts this time. People of Odisha are now frustrated with the BJD government which is very much hand-in-glove with the BJP. Both the parties are systematically exploiting the people of Odisha,” said OPCC campaign committee chairperson Bhakta Charan Das.

Das informed that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will also carry out a massive election campaign in South Odisha.

“Priyanka Gandhi will address an election rally in Nabarangpur on May 10. The OPCC is in the process of finalizing Mallikarjun Kharge’s campaign,” said the OPCC campaign committee chairperson.

Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a poll rally at Salipur in Cuttack district, had targeted the ruling BJD saying it had looted the state’s mineral resources, pushed the state into poverty and left the youths in a state hopelessness sans suitable job opportunities for them.

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