Delhi elections 2015: On campaign trail, Sonia Gandhi slams 'pracharak' Narendra Modi, 'dharnebaaj' Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in her maiden election rally in Delhi for the upcoming assembly polls, saying both are only good at making “hollow promises”.

“While one party has a pracharak (preacher) who only does ‘prachar’, the other just has a dharnebaaj (dharna-freak) who is all the time busy organising dharnas. Delhi needs good governance and not false promises…BJP and AAP can only talk big and make hollow promises,” Gandhi said at a rally at Badarpur.

Calling upon voters to support Congress to ensure development, progress and social harmony, Gandhi said Modi has failed to act upon his tall campaign promises and that Kejriwal ran away from administrative responsibilities to hold dharna within less than two months of becoming CM.

“There is a need to be careful of those doing politics of pretension. The country is not run by mere slogans,” she said.

Gandhi said Delhi used to suffer from frequent power cuts and infrastructural issues as well price rise during the last time BJP ruled, while the 15-year Congress rule under Sheila Dikshit since then brought major improvements in development and infrastructure.

Accusing the Modi government of “weakening” the pro-poor social sector schemes initiated by the previous UPA dispensation, including on food security and land acquisition, and doing nothing to check corruption, Gandhi also pointed out that parts of Delhi witnessed communal troubles after the NDA regime took charge at the Centre. “There are some forces which cause incidents like what happened in Trilokpuri and Dilshad Garden. Such forces will have to be defeated,” she said.

Targeting AAP, Gandhi said despite Congress extending support to Kejriwal to form a government in 2013, AAP could not run the government. “Instead, they just fled.”