New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi will hold a social justice conclave in Delhi on December 11 to conclude the month-long Congress foot march and urge party workers to prepare aggressively for the assembly elections early next year.
"Rahul Gandhi will attend the concluding event of our 'Nyay Yatra' on December 11 at the Indira Gandhi stadium. He will interact with fellow travellers and hold a social justice conclave with the voters. The yatra has covered all 70 assembly seats since November 8 and has been very encouraging for us. This is the time for change and the people have decided they will not suffer government apathy anymore," Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav told ETV Bharat.
The foot march, which covered all 70 seats in Delhi, was dubbed as 'Nyay Yatra' and aimed to flag the various concerns of the voters like air and river pollution, lack of drinking water supply, garbage disposal and other civic issues besides education, jobs, corruption in state government and law and order situation, which comes under the Centre.
"The people have seen both the central and state governments over the past decade and want a change this time. Delhi was known as the green capital but is now associated with polluted air and Yamuna River. The Congress will restore the city's pride that was earned during the previous Sheila Dikshit government from 1998-2013," said Yadav.
The yatra has given much-needed confidence to the grand old party which has been on the margins in the national capital since 2013 when the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power, said Congress insiders, adding the seven BJP Lok Sabha MPs in the city never raised the concerns of the voters with the Centre but only targeted the state government for political reasons.
"The yatraactivated the Congress workers who had been lying a bit low since the recent Lok Sabha elections where our alliance with AAP did not pay dividends. But we did well in the three seats that came to us in alliance and our workers felt we could have done better if we had contested all seven seats on our own. I would say we can now attract the anti-AAP votes as the ruling party is unlikely to come back to power. The yatra has also helped us identify potential candidates," former Lok Sabha MP Sandeep Dikshit told ETV Bharat.
"Rahul Gandhi had been requested to join the yatra mid-way, but he was busy. I think he may articulate his vision for Delhi at the concluding event on December 11 and urge all workers to fight the elections unitedly," he said.
Over the past weeks, senior Congress leaders like Uttar Pradesh in-charge Avinash Pande, Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai, Punjab unit chief Amarinder Raja Warring and Congress Working Committee member Sachin Pilot joined the yatra and addressed small corner meetings in different areas to reassure the voters that the grand old party could be trusted with the promises being made during the yatra.
