Campaigning for Congress’s East Delhi candidate Arvinder Singh Lovely on Thursday, party president Rahul Gandhi resorted to humour and wordplay, while urging the crowd to vote for “Lovely, a local candidate, and make him win with a ‘lovely’ margin.”
Speaking before a packed Ramlila Maidan in East Delhi’s Geeta Colony at around 8pm, Rahul claimed that only the Congress could defeat the BJP.
Be it him stopping the crowd from shouting slogans, who were chanting “chowkidaar chor hai” and “aayi, aayi, Congress aayi”, in between his address with “thoda flow mein aane dijiye (allow me to get into the flow)”, or thanking the women in the crowd for coming after dark to listen to him, his supporters said it felt like he would “bring about change” they have been waiting for.
“He is not Pappu (a term Rahul’s detractors use to describe him); he is a simple, honest. And his adversaries are afraid that with these qualities, he will soon make space in people’s hearts,” said Sumedha Shashidhar, a resident of Rohtas Nagar.
In his 30-minute speech, Rahul took a dig at the AAP and pointed out to posters they had put up across the city. “They say ‘hum kaam karte rahe, woh kaam rokte rahe (we kept working and they kept stopping our work)’ but it was them who had opened the doors for PM Modi to come to power,” he said. “Let me remind you that in 2015, AAP’s slogan was ‘Kejriwal Delhi mein, Modi desh mein’.”
{{/usCountry}}In his 30-minute speech, Rahul took a dig at the AAP and pointed out to posters they had put up across the city. “They say ‘hum kaam karte rahe, woh kaam rokte rahe (we kept working and they kept stopping our work)’ but it was them who had opened the doors for PM Modi to come to power,” he said. “Let me remind you that in 2015, AAP’s slogan was ‘Kejriwal Delhi mein, Modi desh mein’.”
{{/usCountry}}The Congress chief’s rally comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took on the party, its past policies and governments. “Even Congress has made mistakes, I know and I admit it, but I can assure you that we come with a clean intention... We come before you to make things better for you,” Rahul said.
Speaking earlier, Lovely attacked the BJP and the AAP.
On the venue of the of the meeting, Lovely said, “We have been organising Ravan dahan in this grounds for decades now, and we chose this place for Rahul ji’s address to remind everyone how powerful Ravan’s arrogance was brought down... This Ravan’s (Modi’s) arrogance will also be brought down on May 23.”
Lovely said that while he was from East Delhi, he was fighting candidates who were there on “political tourism”. “When journalists ask these people (candidates of the BJP) of the problems and issues of the constituency they are fighting from, they evade and say that they are fighting the election as ‘Modi’s chowkidaars’, the voters of East Delhi don’t need Modi’s chowkidaars, they want Rahul’s sewadaars,” he said.