New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will scale up his campaign against the top three leaders of the AAP, including former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Chief Minister Atishi by seeking votes for the Congress candidates in their Assembly constituencies.
The Congress has fielded Sandeep Dikshit, the son of former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit against Kejriwal in the New Delhi seat, Mahila Congress chief Alka Lamba against Atishi in the Kalkaji seat and Farhad Suri, the son of veteran Tajdar Babar against Sisodia in the Jangpura seat.
According to party insiders, Rahul, who launched his Delhi campaign by seeking votes for the Congress nominee in the Seelampur seat on January 13 in favour of party nominee Abdul Rahman, an AAP turncoat, will conduct a foot march in the New Delhi seat on January 20. Similar foot marches will be conducted in the Jangpura and the Kalkaji as well, said party insiders, adding the padayatra may be extended to over a dozen more seats where the grand old party is keen to revive itself.
Since then, Rahul, who restrained AICC treasurer Ajay Maken’s campaign branding Kejriwal as ‘anti-national’, has been targeting the AAP founder, who has dubbed the February 5 elections as a mandate for himself. However, Rahul has not restrained Sandeep Dikshit, who has been regularly attacking Kejriwal over various policy issues and even the ex-Chief Minister’s attacks on Sheila Dikshit earlier.
Rahul’s January 20 foot march and rally in support of Sandeep serves the Congress well as the grand old party’s entire campaign is focused on the contrast between the development done during the Sheila Dikshit rule and the 11 years of the Kejriwal government during which the national capital came to be associated with high crime rate, traffic woes, high air pollution, polluted Yamuna River and lack of clean drinking water.
“The response to the Seelampur rally was huge. The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi had aroused the voters nationwide. The people of Delhi are also keen to listen to him as they are reminded of the work done during the Sheila Dikshit government. The AAP has projected a rosy picture, which is far removed from reality. The Congress will expose the AAP’s hollow claims,” Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav told ETV Bharat.
According to party insiders, the main focus of the Congress campaign is to maximise the party vote share and dent the AAP as much as possible. In the process, if Congress grabs a few seats, it will be like a bonus as the grand old party is going into the 2025 elections with a meagre four per cent vote share. After being on the margins since 2013 when the Congress lost power to AAP, the grand old party has realised that more than the BJP, the AAP was its main rival.
“I cannot comment on the numbers, but the tally of AAP is going down this time. For the voters, there is no difference between the AAP and the BJP as both parties were busy over the past 11 years fighting against each other. In the process, the development ushered in Delhi during the Sheila Dikshit government took a back seat. We want to restore the city’s glory,” former MP JP Aggarwal told ETV Bharat.
