Cong still banking on ‘Sheila magic’ to spring surprise

NEW DELHI: As campaigning for February 8 Assembly polls came to an end on Thursday, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said his party will spring a surprise in Delhi, as it did in neighbouring Haryana recently.

“The polls are just two days away. During the Haryana elections also, some exit polls gave us only two seats but we won 31 instead. This is going to happen again, this time, in Delhi,” said Surjewala, while addressing a press conference at the party’s Delhi unit headquarters on the last day of canvassing.

Surjewala , who is the All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson, also attacked both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) terming them “Jhooton Ki Sarkar” (government of liars) and their leaders as “Jhoothon Ke Sardar” (heads of liars).

Alleging that the BJP and the AAP have turned Delhi into a “gas chamber”, he said the Congress under former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit had reduced carbon emissions by 60% by converting one crore dieselrun public vehicles into CNG.

‘CHOOSE IF YOU WANT DIL WALON KI SARKAR’

He concluded by saying that now people have to choose if they want “Dil walon ki sarkar” (government with a heart), which the Congress can provide or the AAP that wants “dangal” (fight) or the BJP, which wants “dange” (riots). “Whatever development was done in Delhi has been under Dikshit’s 15-year-rule and people of Delhi remember that,” said Surjewala.

The Congress has, by and large, kept development done under former CM Sheila Dikshit’s 15-year-rule as its poll plank this poll season. Only in the last leg of campaign, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP urging people not to vote for a party that has been diverting attention from real issues to “religious polarisation”.

Later, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who addressed two public meetings on the last two days, in her address stuck to local issues attacking AAP on poor roads, health and education infrastructure.

While AAP and the BJP ran high decibel campaigns, the Congress woke up a little late in the race with its ‘star campaigners’ coming in the picture only in the last week.

The party has kept its campaign low-profile.