Launching the Congress’ campaign for the upcoming municipal elections in Delhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal practiced “politics of false promises”.
“Both Modi and Kejriwal engage in politics of false promises. Modi had made many promises before the Lok Sabha elections, and Kejriwal had promised to do a lot of good things in Delhi. However, they have not kept their promises,” Gandhi said addressing a convention of Congress workers at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.
He said the ideology of the Congress was different from that of the BJP, the RSS or the Aam Aadmi Party, and that his party believed in listening to the voice of each and every countryman. He charged both Modi and Kejriwal with being authoritarian. “Both of them are leading individual-centric governments.”
It is crucial for the Congress to have a good showing in the elections to the three municipal corporations of Delhi, which are scheduled to be held in April. The party sees the civic polls as an opportunity to stage a comeback in the capital. The party had failed to win a single seat in the Assembly elections in 2014, and is desperate to be back in the power dynamic of the politics of Delhi.
Accusing both the Kejriwal dispensation and the BJP-ruled MCD with neglecting sanitation in the capital, Gandhi said children had lost their lives due to dengue, something which had never happened when the Congress was in power in Delhi.
He questioned Modi’s silence on the killing of Indians in the US. “Modi ji talks about his 56-inch chest, right? When our youth are being killed, why is he not speaking? It is because India's prime minister is scared of speaking up (to the US)," Gandhi said.
