Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Swaraj India to blow whistle on poll rivals

- Abhinav Rajput abhinav@htlive.com

CAMPAIGN Party tells volunteers to use the whistle, Swaraj India’s symbol, whenever they hear ‘fake’ claims at poll rallies

The MCD poll campaign is set to turn combative in the coming days as Swaraj India volunteers will blow the whistle on false promises, literally.

The party wants to use its political symbol ‘whistle’ in the corporatio­n elections as a tool to embarrass rival leaders and discourage them from making false promises.

Sources said volunteers of the party have been asked to carry whistles to rallies of prominent leaders of BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi.

“Party volunteers will be present at the rallies of rival parties along with locals. If they find that the leaders are taking credit for developmen­tal works not done by them, the volunteers and locals will start whistling,” he said.

However, to ensure that this is not used as a tool to obstruct rallies, the volunteers have been asked to whistle only when they are in a position to explain the error. This is also the reason that they have been asked to take locals along with them.

Member of Swaraj India’s national presidium Anupam said the party wants to use the whistle like a referee at a football match.

“Whenever any leader will indulge in foul play or cross the line we will whistle,” Anupam said.

The party hopes that people will take the initiative forward by using the technique to embarrass leaders when they make false statements. Sources said, the idea of the campaign ‘Blow The Whistle’ comes from Aamir Khan starrer film PK, where each time the protagonis­t saw something wrong he said, “Ye to wrong number hai. (This is a wrong number).”

Meanwhile, whistle is not the permanent symbol of Swaraj India and most candidates were allowed the symbol in this election as they had filled it as their first option. The party, however, will be vouching to get it as their permanent symbol in the future.

Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav will stay in unauthoris­ed colonies, JJ clusters and slums from Tuesday till the polling day. Yadav will have a night stay in Aya Nagar—one of the most neglected areas of South Delhi, on Tuesday .

Earlier, BJP’s newly-appointed Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari had nights in slums to discuss problems that the dwellers were facing.

Member of Swaraj India’s national presidium Anupam said, “Yogendraji will not be returning home from now onwards till the elections are over. He along with other volunteers will spend nights in these areas so understand their problems in a better way and put pressure upon the authoritie­s to solve them.”

Other areas where Yadav will stay have not been decided yet.

 ?? HT PHOTO ?? A member of Swaraj India blows the whistle during campaignin­g. Whistle is the poll symbol of the party.
HT PHOTO A member of Swaraj India blows the whistle during campaignin­g. Whistle is the poll symbol of the party.

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