The party-organized 'Jai Bharat' rally will include Rahul Gandhi as the keynote speaker.


Bengaluru: Rahul Gandhi, the head of the Congress, will speak at a party event on Sunday in Kolar, the same town where he made a statement about the Modi surname that led to his criminal defamation conviction and the removal of his membership in Parliament.
The former AICC president, according to state Congress sources, will fly into Bengaluru on Sunday morning and then go to Kolar, where he will speak at a 'Jai Bharat' rally sponsored by the party.
In Bengaluru, next to the Karnataka PCC office, Mr. Gandhi will inaugurate the recently built "Indira Gandhi Bhavan," an office and auditorium with 750 seats.

AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretary for Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, KPCC Chairman DK Shivakumar, and legislative party chairman and former chief minister Siddaramaiah are among the key Congress officials anticipated to attend the festivities.


According to congressional sources, the demonstration was originally set for April 5 but was delayed for several reasons, including polling preparation and the candidate selection process, to April 9 and then eventually April 16.


On March 23, a court in Surat, Gujarat, condemned Rahul Gandhi to two years in prison for his statement that "Why all thieves have the Modi surname" in a criminal defamation case from 2019. He was removed from the Lok Sabha the following day as of the date of his conviction in the case. 

The Gandhi scion had made the comments while running for Lok Sabha in Kolar in April 2019.

The party will benefit from his presence on Sunday as it approaches the Karnataka Assembly elections on May 10.

Kolar is important since Siddaramaiah has stated that he intends to run from there as his second seat. He had already left Varuna in the district of Mysuru.

The name of Congress's contender for the Kolar seat is still pending.