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Delhi polls 2015: Sonia Gandhi urges voters to defeat the forces of ‘hatred’

In only scheduled election outing, calls on voters to defeat those who cause riots.

Sonia Gandhi, Delhi assembly polls, Delhi elections 2015, Sonia Gandhi spoke for only 15 minutes, Dikshit didn’t at all. (Source: Express Photo by Ravi Kanojia)

Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed her first rally for this week’s Assembly polls and called upon people to defeat the forces of “hatred” who cause “riots” for electoral gains.

Gandhi asked the people to strengthen the secular fabric of the country and vote against the “politics of hatred’. “Some forces, when in power, begin to work towards incidents such as Trilokpuri, Dilshad Garden and Vikaspuri. In order to ensure that democracy is protected…these forces must be defeated,” she told a sizeable crowd at Meethapur in the Badarpur Assembly seat.

She also accused the Modi government of “weakening” the schemes initiated by the previous UPA government, including the Food Security Act and the Land Acquisition Act. “The Modi government is trying to bring such changes as will limit the percentage of beneficiaries of the Food Security Act from 67 per cent to 40 per cent,” she said.

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She said she would like to ask Modi where “is the black money, which is going to provide Rs 15 lakh to every citizen”.

After her speech, which lasted a little over 15 minutes, Gandhi met party supporters. Many clambered on to street lamps and trees to catch a glimpse of the Congress president, while nearly every one had their phones and cameras ready to click a photograph.

Festive offer

Congress leaders later said they were emboldened by the turnout and the enthusiasm of the people but whether this would translate into votes was unclear. “The problem is we don’t know whether they’ll all vote for Congress. Many loyalists believe the Congress will end third in Delhi, and hence they don’t want to waste their vote,” a senior Congress leader said.

In her speech, Gandhi spoke about Delhi’s development during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure. “During the past 15 years of Sheilaji’s tenure, Congress worked day and night, gave broad roads and flyovers, facilities such as Metro, made the city free of pollution (sic)…gave water to people…and started work to give homes to those living in JJ colonies,” she said.

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Dikshit was also present at the rally with former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress campaign chief Ajay Maken. She, however, did not speak.

Gandhi said Modi was a “pracharak” (canvasser) who was only interested in his “prachar” and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was a “dharnebaj” (protester) who was busy organising dharnas.

She said both parties were united in their “opposition of the Congress at any cost, to come to power”. “Delhi needs good governance, not false promises… BJP and AAP can only talk big and make hollow promises,” she said.

The Badarpur Assembly segment, close to the river Yamuna, has a significant population of farmers and Gandhi raked up the Land Acquisition Act for that audience. She said PM Modi had promised “golden dreams” before polls, but after coming to power, had deprived farmers of fertilisers and seeds.

First uploaded on: 02-02-2015 at 02:34 IST
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