Delhi polls: After BJP, Congress wheels out big guns

NEW DELHI: A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi led an election roadshow in the city, the party yesterday decided to involve its brass, including former Union ministers and ex-CMs, in the poll process. The move is aimed at making the last leg of the campaigning more aggressive.

On Monday, BJP had announced that Union ministers, BJP MPs and senior functionaries would micromanage the Delhi polls. Congress followed suit with the announcement of its own line-up of heavyweights on Wednesday. The AICC's decision to rope in the national team is seen as an attempt to put up a show of strength to motivate the grassroots workers. This also makes clear that for Congress, this election is a do-or-die battle.

According to sources, this is also an attempt to bridge the gap between the party and the traditional voters. Congress faces the chance of further erosion of its support base if it fails to usher in a revival. Moreover, the coming polls are nothing short of a national event. The results in Delhi will make a national impact, the sources added.

To maintain the momentum created by Rahul's roadshow in Kalkaji, the AICC will engage its brass to oversee the campaigining, sources said. Each of those put on the job has been made in-charge of 10 assembly seats divided on the basis of parliamentary constituencies.

They will have to hit the campaign trail, advise the candidates and organize their speeches effectively. The election monitoring is an attempt to boost the party's effort at the grassroots and plug loopholes. This also brings the poll campaigning under the direct watch of Rahul Gandhi.

Former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid has been assigned the North East Delhi parliamentary constituency. The New Delhi seat, a middle-class vote bank, will be supervised by Anand Sharma, the deputy leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and a former UPA minister who held charge of commerce and industry portfolio.

Another former Union minister, CP Joshi, has been made in-charge of the East Delhi parliamentary seat. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will be out to boost campaign efforts in the difficult South Delhi constituency, which houses a large number of unauthorized colonies, slums, low-income settlements and the villages.

Former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot will handle the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency. Chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh, will look after West Delhi and former railway minister in the UPA cabinet Pawan Kumar Bansal will take charge of the North West Delhi seat.

The strategy adopted by Congress this time is a clear shift from that of 2013 when the grand old party was in absolute denial of the rise of AAP and arrogantly went about highlighting its own achievements when Delhiites desperately sought reforms in power, water and housing sectors.