Congress gears up for Delhi poll battle with month-long ‘Nyay Yatra’

Maken, Sukhu flag off foot march; Kharge, Rahul expected to join at different junctures; yatra scheduled to end on Dec. 4; people won’t forget Cong.’s tie-up with AAP in Lok Sabha election: BJP

The Congress’s city unit on Friday launched its month-long ‘Delhi Nyay Yatra’ to connect with voters in the national capital’s 70 constituencies ahead of the Assembly election due in February next year. Senior party leaders, including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Rajya Sabha member Ajay Maken, flagged off the padayatra (foot march), which will end in north Delhi’s Timarpur on December 4.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and several other senior leaders are expected to mark their presence at different junctures during the campaign, sources said. The drive is modelled on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which Mr. Gandhi started in September 2022 from Kanyakumari. He walked 4,000 km to reach Srinagar over a period of 145 days, covering 12 States and two Union territories.

Following the flag-off ceremony at Rajghat, party workers held a rally, which started at Turkman Gate, Ballimaran, Sita Ram Bazar, Hauz Quazi, and concluded at Fatehpuri.

The launch of the grand old party’s walkathon in the Capital comes weeks after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by its national convener Arvind Kejriwal, started padayatras across Delhi.

Congress city unit chief Devender Yadav said the campaign’s aim is to interact with people and tell them about the “unprecedented development works” carried out by the Delhi government under Sheila Dikshit’s 15-year tenure as the CM from 1998 to 2013. The party will also expose the “misrule and corruption” of the AAP government over the past 10 years, he added.

“Our workers will knock on the doors of citizens in every Assembly constituency and tell them how the Congress is determined to restart the stalled development works and bring prosperity back to the city,” said Mr. Yadav.

Speaking at the inauguration, Mr. Maken said that over the next few days, Delhi residents will join the yatra to seek freedom from pollution and the “lies” spread by the AAP chief over a decade. He added that the city dwellers will also question those “who came to power fighting against corruption but are now embroiled in corruption and have built luxurious homes for themselves worth crores”.

Mr. Sukhu said his government in Himachal Pradesh had shown that promises made to the public are fulfilled and that the party does not indulge in “empty rhetoric”.

The Congress, which fought the recent Lok Sabha election in Delhi in alliance with AAP, is looking to make a comeback in the city after drawing a blank in the last two Assembly polls. Both parties are contesting the upcoming electoral contest on their own.

‘Shocking turnaround’

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said people in the national capital are “shocked” to see the manner in which the Congress leaders are speaking against AAP’s “corruption and misrule”.

“The people of Delhi have not forgotten that Devender Yadav is the same leader who formed an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in the Lok Sabha election and praised Arvind Kejriwal day and night,” he said.

Mr. Kapoor added, “However, after the public rejected the alliance in the election, he [Yadav] has again started levelling allegations against AAP.”

Published - November 09, 2024 01:07 am IST