Rahul Gandhi likely to launch Congress poll campaign in Chhattisgarh in early October

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is likely to launch his party's election campaign in poll-bound Chhattisgarh in early October and the process of screening candidates for the assembly polls would be over by this month-end, state Congress leaders said.

This decision was taken at a meeting of top party leaders from the state with Gandhi at his residence. The Congress chief also asked them to hold parleys with states of the Bahujan Samaj Party for possible tie-up in the state.

Chhattisgarh Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel said the state Congress has given a proposal to the party chief to start the party's poll campaign formally sometime in the first and second week of October.

"The state Congress has given its proposal but the exact dates will be decided by the party high command and the Congress president. The campaign will be in three phases," he told PTI.

He also said the screening committee of the party, for the first time, is visiting each district to select candidates and hold discussions with leaders at the grassroots level.

Congress party's in-charge for Chhattisgarh affairs P L Punia said the process of screening of candidates will be over by end of this month.

"We will complete the process of screening candidates by September-end and will send the recommendations to the central election committee," he said.

Gandhi also told the Chhattisgarh Congress leaders to highlight the "failures" of the Narendra Modi and the state BJP governments and to take the policies of the Congress to the people at the grassroots level.

On a possible tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party, Gandhi told the state leadership to hold discussions with the state leaders of the BSP for unitedly fighting and defeating the BJP in the state.

The BJP led by Raman Singh has been in power for the last three terms.