New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS): The Congress campaign for the February 5 Delhi Assembly election is expected to get a big boost with Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi planning three rallies on three successive days, starting Wednesday.
Gandhi will address a rally on Wednesday (January 22) near Inderlok Metro station (Sadar Assembly), in what will be his second big show in election-bound Delhi after his massive rally in Seelampur on January 13.
On January 23, Gandhi will address a rally in Mustafabad. The next day, January 24, he will hold an election meeting in Madipur.
Announcing Gandhi’s election rally schedule at a press conference at the DPCC office, former Delhi Minister Narendra Nath said on Tuesday that the party’s star campaigner is expected to raise issues affecting the people of Delhi.
He said, apart from exposing the failure of the Arvind Kejriwal government and the BJP in addressing the ills afflicting the Capital, Gandhi may also pitch for Dalits who are not getting their deserving dues.
The Congress has failed to win even a single seat in the last two Assembly elections for the 70-member House. The party’s political drought came after three successive victories in Assembly elections between 1998 and 2008.
Meanwhile, former Member of Parliament and Dalit leader Udit Raj claimed he was detained at the Mandir Marg Police Station after he attempted to take up the cause of Dalit priests and tried to meet Kejriwal at his residence.
Congress leader Udit Raj said that the anti-Dalit attitude of Kejriwal was exposed yet again when he refused to meet him, along with some Buddhist monks, and priests of Guru Ravi Das and Valmiki temples.
He said he had gone to Kejriwal’s home, along with Dalit priests, to demand Rs 18,000 monthly honorarium for them on the lines of a financial assistance promised to the priests of temples and granthis of Gurudwaras by the ruling AAP.
Kejriwal did not bother to meet us, despite being present at home, said Udit Raj.
He said that he had requested Kejriwal to include Dalits in the Delhi AAP government’s pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens to holy places, but he did not accept his proposal.