Ending speculation, Congress Sunday announced that party president Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala along with Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

The announcement was made by senior party leader AK Antony at a press conference here.

Ending speculation, the Congress announced on Sunday, March 31, 2019, that party president Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala along with Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

The announcement was made by senior party leader AK Antony at a press conference here.

Also on Sunday, Gandhi addressed his first election rally in Andhra Pradesh, which will simultaneously hold assembly and Lok Sabha elections. He promised to provide special category status to AP if his party was voted to power. He expressed surprise that parties in the state had failed to 'aggressively' push the issue.

He said his party would launch a 'surgical strike' on poverty, and that Nyay, his promise of a minimum income scheme, was a 'non-violent weapon' that will be used to uplift the poorest.

He said that while the previous Congress-led UPA had created poverty eradication schemes, Prime Minister 'Narendra Modi dismantled everything.'

'He destroyed the pillars of MGNREGA and the Food Security Act,' the Congress chief said in a speech that lasted more than 30 minutes.

Gandhi, whose party is contesting the polls in Andhra Pradesh alone, said that unlike Modi carrying out 'surgical strikes against the poor', his party would carry them out against poverty.