Sonia Gandhi cancels Bilaspur meeting, to visit Kharsia only

     Bilaspur, November 18, 2008: Congress President Sonia Gandhi today cancelled her Bilaspur election meeting after the party candidate expressed inability to organise a proper gathering here.

     Till yesterday evening her Bilaspur and Kharsia meetings were on schedule but subsequently Congress candidate from Bilaspur Anil Tah had expressed inability to organise a proper meeting in his constituency because of which her Bilaspur programme was cancelled, Congress sources told ChhattisgarhTopNews.Com here in the judicial capital.

     Bahujan Samaj Party supreme Mayawati had on Sunday had a huge and successful meeting and the Congress President’s meeting needed to be better than that, the central Congress leaders had left a message to the Bilaspur party unit.

     However, Congress candidate Tah had admitted it was beyond his capacity to gather more people than that of Mayawati, because of which the Congress high command cancelled the Bilaspur meeting, the sources said.

     Congress central leadership also wanted a meeting in Raigarh district headquarters, but the organisers and party leaders straight cut refused to arrange one lakh gathering in that city, sources claimed.

     However, Kharsia candidate Nand Kumar Patel said he can mobilize about 50,000 gathering in his area after which Sonia agreed to have only one meeting in Kharsia, they said.

    Like the previous occasion, this time also Congress has officially not given any reason why the Bilaspur meeting of Sonia Gandhi had been cancelled.