Sonia Gandhi to resume campaign from today - Times of India

NEW DELHI: Congress rushed in to clarify that Sonia Gandhi would resume her campaign duties on Tuesday. The party had a scare after its chief pulled out of her Maharashtra tour on Sunday.

Party sources said Sonia would travel to West Bengal on Tuesday and would be on the campaign trail for the coming days in the week. She is scheduled to go to Gujarat, Narendra Modi's state, on April 24.

To allay fears arising after about Sunday's cancellation, sources said the Congress chief had a minor asthma attack because of which she missed the rallies in Nandurbar, Dhule and Mumbai.

The Maharashtra leg did not turn out well for Congress because while Rahul Gandhi was deputed as Sonia's replacement for the Mumbai rally, NCP chief Sharad Pawar gave it a miss on learning that the UPA chairperson was not coming. It would have been the first joint rally by the two alliance partners, leading to queries if Pawar was miffed at being asked to share the dais with the Congress vice-president.

Sonia is expected to travel across states in the coming weeks and even to tough poll turfs like coastal Andhra and Tamil Nadu where Congress is weakly placed in this election. According to an AICC manager, Sonia is expected to campaign for 10 out of the 20 days left of electioneering left in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress chief is expected to address 80 rallies in all.