Congress president Rahul Gandhi will launch the party’s Lok Sabha election campaign in Karnataka at Haveri on March 9.

“We expect lakhs of people to turn up for this mega rally,” Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters on Friday, after holding a meeting with the party’s district unit chiefs. The party leadership has asked the cadres to work towards making Gandhi’s rally a success.

The party has lined up similar rallies and public meetings at Raichur, Vijayapura and so on. Rao and other leaders have also discussed organising rallies in every district going into the polls.

To strengthen the party’s grassroots presence, the Congress may look at emulating a programme similar to the BJP’s Vistarak project, it is learnt.

Under the Vistarak project, some party workers will be assigned full-time to judge the mood of the electorate, interact with them and provide constant feedback to the party.