Eye on 2024 polls, Congress targets BJP at Delhi rally

Congress will likely have a pre-poll alliance with the ruling AAP and said it will organise rallies in the six other parliamentary seats

The Delhi Congress on Sunday conducted its first public rally since former Delhi minister Arvinder Singh Lovely took over as the state Congress chief even as it attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for “not doing anything for the people of Delhi”.

Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely and others during the rally in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)

The rally was held in Jhanda Chowk in Bawana, which falls under the northwest Delhi parliamentary constituency, as part of the party’s preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. All seven parliamentary constituencies in the Capital have been held by BJP MPs since 2014.

Lovely said the Congress will defeat BJP in the general elections. “An unprecedented number of people gathered at our rally which shows the growing angst against the central government and the local MPs, and rising support towards Congress. The people as well as Congress workers in today’s rally took a pledge that they will defeat the BJP in all seven LS seats of Delhi. In the last nine years that the BJP has been holding the seats, they have done nothing for the people of the area,” said Lovely.

Lovely, who served as a popular minister in the Sheila Dixit government in Delhi, was appointed as the Delhi chief on August 31. The Congress rally was conducted after nearly a year-long hiatus where the party brought several popular leaders like Haroon Yusuf, Krishna Tirath, Mangat Ram Singhal and others.

Congress will likely have a pre-poll alliance with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and said it will organise rallies in the six other parliamentary seats to reactivate its workers and “expose the local MPs”.

To be sure, no official decision has been taken regarding an alliance. “The call will be taken by the national party leadership,” said a senior Congress leader.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Congress was a “non-existent party in Delhi” with no cadre or vote share left. “The Congress should know that the MPs of Delhi have channelised a lot of development work through the central government for Delhi such as road infrastructure, the face uplift Delhi saw before G20, Bharat Mandapam and Yashobhoomi, etc,” said Kapoor.