Rahul Gandhi will address party workers at a rally at Shivaji Park next month. File
Ahead of the crucial Mumbai civic polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in the metropolis on December 28, the party's Maharashtra in-charge H K Patil said today.
Speaking at the launch of Congress membership drive in the state, Mr Patil said by December 28, which happens to be the party's foundation day, the city unit will enroll some 10 lakh members.
He said a digital membership drive has been started in all 10,000 booths in Mumbai whose civic body has 227 wards.
"Rahul Gandhi has agreed to address party workers at a rally at Shivaji Park on December 28," Mr Patil said
His address to the party will be ahead of the crucial polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country's richest civic body which the Congress once controlled.
In the 2017 civic body polls, the Congress was relegated to the third position after the Shiv Sena and the BJP. The next polls are due in early 2022.
The Congress in Maharashtra and its Mumbai unit today started a membership drive. The campaign is part of the nationwide Congress membership drive that started on November 1 and will go on till March 31, 2022.
The drive in Mumbai assumes significance as the country's oldest political party was founded in the city in 1885.
Speaking at the event, state Congress president Nana Patole said Mumbai Congress will enroll 10 lakh people.
State Congress Working President Naseem Khan said the basic values of the Constitution and the party are the same.
Ever since the BJP has come to power (at the Centre), it has weakened the Constitution and there is no option in the country other than the Congress, the former state minister said. In Maharashtra, the Congress is part of the Shiv Sena-led MVA government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)