Congress President Rahul Gandhi to address two rallies in Chhattisgarh today

Raipur: Congress President Rahul Gandhi will address two election rallies in Chhattisgarh on Saturday. The rallies will be held at Bilaspur district and at Bhilai town in Durg district. "The Congress chief will first address a public meeting in Sakri Bhata area of Bilaspur town at around 3 pm and the next one in Bhilai town of Durg district around 5 pm," Congress' state spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said. This will be Gandhi's first poll campaign tour in the state after the announcement of Lok Sabha election schedule. He did not campaign for the first and second phases of poll in the state. Congress has fielded Atal Shrivastav, state Congress general secretary from Bilaspur Lok Sabha constituency and its former MLA Pratima Chandrakar from Durg Lok Sabha seat. Election to the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state is being held in three phases. Seven seats - Korba, Raipur, Bilaspur, Janjgir-Champa (SC), Durg, Surguja (ST) and Raigarh (ST) - will go to polls in the third phase on April 23 in the state. On April 11, only the Naxal-hit Bastar Lok Sabha constituency went to polls in the first phase, while in the second phase on April 18, three constituencies - Rajnandagon, Mahasamund and Kanker - witnessed polling. Buoyed by its victory in the assembly election in Chhattisgarh last year, the Congress is hoping to improve its tally in the state against the BJP, which had won 10 out of 11 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.