World | India
Rahul roadshow to check growing BSP influence
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi yesterday drove around the streets of East Delhi in an attempt to counter growing impact of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
- By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent
- Published: 00:02 November 27, 2008
New Delhi: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi yesterday drove around the streets of East Delhi in an attempt to counter growing impact of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Rahul drove through several densely populated areas of the trans-Yamuna region before reaching Seemapuri to address a rally. He lost no time to lambast rival Bharatiya Janata Party which is heavily dependent on the BSP to help it come to power by making a deep inroads into the traditional Congress vote bank.
Rahul was not originally scheduled to campaign in Delhi but responded to the SOS of the state unit of the party with reports doing the rounds that the BJP may have taken a lead in the march to power ahead of Saturday's election.
He followed his mother Sonia Gandhi, who addressed a rally in Outer Delhi bordering Haryana on Sunday, on the same day when the BSP chief Mayawati held a huge rally in East Delhi, sending shivers down the Congress rank and file.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is slated to address a rally in South Delhi today afternoon, hours before the campaigning comes to an end.
East Delhi is home to a large number of migrants from bordering Uttar Pradesh. BSP being the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh, it is making deep inroads in a large number of constituencies in the area. Bringing Rahul to address a rally was considered the only way to defuse the BSP impact since he has the charisma and appeal to charm the voters.
Until the other day, Congress party was hopeful that East Delhi would go with it since the maximum impact of development is visible on the ground in the area. Metro rail is running in East Delhi, several flyovers have come up and a new road bridge has been commissioned to connect it with New Delhi.
However, Mayawati's entry changed it all making the Congress party feel jittery. That the state unit is hoping Rahul's magic to work was not lost to anyone as all top leaders including chief minister Sheila Dikshit, state unit chief J.P. Agarwal, Delhi MPs Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Sandeep Dikshit were all present at the rally.
Finding faults
Rahul was his usual charming self, speaking informally and softly as he normally does. However, the tone and tenor of his speech was to attack the BJP. The thrust of his speech was that BJP is not a development oriented party and is solely relying on finding faults with the Congress party which has been in power in Delhi for the past one decade.
"If you look at the BJP's manifesto, the first five pages are devoted to the Congress. The other five pages do not spell out plans for Delhi's development," he said.
Rahul said the focus of BJP's campaign is just to come to power without spelling out how it intension to carry forward Delhi's development initiated by his government.
Rahul said that during his campaigning in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, he found that BJP had not done any development.
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