The achievements of the Delhi Congress government under former chief minister Sheila Dikshit and its old charge of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) being Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) B-team are key points that the party will raise during its campaign for the Assembly elections in the Capital.
The party also plans a special focus on pollution, a problem that plagues the city every winter.
A senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader told HT on the condition of anonymity, said, “The AAP government speaks of lower electricity bills, but does not talk about the rising property tax and VAT surcharges. They talk of better government schools, but do not tell the people that 150,000 children have been pulled out of the government schools. These comparisons will be played out.”
A key campaign slogan will be: “Honest Delhi, Congress ki Delhi”. Apart from that, a slew of slogans will focus on why the AAP is a BJP B-team: “jhadu ka jhansa, kamal pe phasa”, “jhaadu ki jhooth, kamal ki loot”, “ek haath diya, ek haath liya” etc.
The campaign, which was to be launched on 14-15 January, might be delayed owing to a lack of consensus among some top leaders, said a Delhi Congress leader.
To shape the manifesto, a committee under former Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken has been formed, and party leaders are holding interactions with several sections for suggestions, including people from unauthorised colonies, unorganised workers, and scrap dealers. Voters will also be given a chance to register their suggestions online.
Apart from offering upto 600 units of electricity free and a pension scheme named after Sheila Dikshit, the party has formed a sub-group to study solutions to curb pollution. A team of experts is working on both long-term and short-term solutions, and there is a strong likelihood of a separate manifesto on the problem.
The party has set up a war room of 25 volunteers at the Delhi Congress office, who are designing content for online campaigns. A workshop for over 600-700 volunteers, in the days ahead, has been planned to train them how to push out content. The party also plans to push out content in over 25,000 WhatsApp groups in the coming days; currently, it is present in over 5,000 such groups.
AICC social media chairman Rohan Gupta told HT that the party will highlight that the Delhi CM has not shown solidarity with students who faced police brutality. “Kejriwal ji has been quiet when students were getting beaten up, and when Delhi was burning. He keeps on saying the police is not under him, but he could have shown solidarity. This is just votebank politics,” said Gupta.
