Haryana Assembly Election 2019: Rahul Gandhi, not Congress's Sonia Gandhi, will address the rally

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who was scheduled to address a rally in Haryana today to gather support for her party in the election to the state legislature, will not attend the event, her party tweeted.

Her son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will instead address the rally at Haryana's Mahendragarh today, the party tweeted in Hindi.

"Rahul Gandhi will address a rally at Mahendragarh at 2 pm today. Sonia Gandhi ji is unable to attend the event. We request your presence and support at the event," the Congress tweeted, without telling the reason why Mrs Gandhi decided to skip the rally.

Had she turned up, it would have been the first election rally for Mrs Gandhi after becoming the party chief again in August, following her son Rahul Gandhi vacating the seat due to the crushing loss the Congress faced in the national election held in April and May.

Today's rally is Rahul Gandhi's second public outreach in Haryana, where election will be held on Monday. Results will be out three days later.

Mr Gandhi addressed voters in the northern state for the first time - after a hiatus since the national election results came out - on October 14 in Mewat region's Nuh.

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi will not be able to address the Mahendragarh rally due to unavoidable reasons. Now, Rahul ji will be addressing the rally in the afternoon in her place," Congress candidate from Mahendragarh, Rao Daan Singh, told news agency Press Trust of India.

Mr Singh faces BJP minister Ram Bilas Sharma on this assembly seat.

In Haryana's 90-seat assembly in the 2014 state election, the BJP won 47 and the Congress 15; the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) took 19. The rest were won by other regional parties and independents.

In August, Mrs Gandhi returned as Congress president two years after she handed the top job to her son. Rahul Gandhi had quit the party's top post in May after its disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha election and subsequently refused the party's requests to withdraw his resignation.

Despite Rahul Gandhi's insistence, the party failed to come up with a non-Gandhi alternative.

With inputs from PTI