Thaindian News

Agartala/Imphal, Nov 3 (IANS) Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will next week visit election bound Manipur as well as Tripura and Nagaland, ruled by non-Congress governments, party leaders said Thursday.

The three-day visit to the northeast would begin in Nagaland Nov 8 when he would address several public meetings. He will be in Manipur the next day and Tripura after that.

In Nagaland, now ruled by the Naga People’s Front (NPF)-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland, he would address two meetings.

A public meeting is scheduled in the Manipur capital Imphal Nov 9, said Manipur Pradesh Youth Congress president M. Prithiviraj. The election for the 60-member Manipur assembly is expected to be held February 2012.

Gandhi would also address two meetings in Tripura, ruled by the country’s only Left government.

“The visit would encourage party workers and leaders to further intensify their work,” Tripura Congress spokesperson Ratan Chakraborty told reporters.

With his public meetings in Kumarghat in north Tripura and Udaipur in south Tripura, the party would launch its election campaign for elections expected in February 2013, he said.

“Rahul Gandhi’s visit will unite different fraction of party organisation, which needs to be further strengthen to vote out the Left Front,” said Tapas Dey, a former legislator and senior party leader.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary K. Jayakumar, who undertook a five-day tour of the state this week, was harassed by a section of party workers, he said.

During his tour, Gandhi will be accompanied by former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, also a Congress general secretary and party in-charge of Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim.