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Sonia to address Delhi rally as Congress panics
Responding to an SOS from the state unit, the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has agreed to address a rally in Delhi in the lead up to assembly elections.
- By Ajay Jha, Correspondent
- Published: 23:15 November 19, 2008
New Delhi: Responding to an SOS from the state unit, the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has agreed to address a rally in Delhi in the lead up to assembly elections.
Locked in a triangular contest with rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), local leadership of the Congress party have become apprehensive over the prospects of the party emerging as the winner for a third consecutive term.
The party's central leadership had not scheduled rallies of its top leaders in Delhi following an assurance from chief minister Sheila Dikshit that the Congress victory was imminent. However, various pre-poll surveys show the Congress party trailing behind BJP and the BSP.
Two days before
Sonia will address a rally on Mangolpuri on Sunday while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is slated to address a rally at Ambedkar Nagar on November 27, just two days prior to the elections.
The selection of Mangolpuri and Ambedkar Nagar as the venues of the rallies of the top two leaders of the party reflects the panic BSP has managed to create amongst the Congress leadership. Both seats are reserved for Scheduled (lower) Castes which is considered the base of the BSP.
Delhi's education minister Rajkumar Chauhan is contesting the Mangolpuri seat while Delhi assembly speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh is the candidate from Ambedkar Nagar. Surveys suggest that both are trailing behind their BJP rivals mainly due to the BSP factor.
"BSP has emerged as a big force in Delhi and it would definitely make a dent in the Congress vote bank," said BJP's chief ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra. BJP estimates BSP to poll around 10 per cent of votes, enough to remove the Congress party from power, as the two parties share common votes amongst lower caste Hindus and Muslims.
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