Delhi MCD Election 2017: Congress intensifies campaign, to deploy 90 top leaders

Congress is keenly contesting the elections for 272 wards in the three municipal corporations of Delhi and is pitted against the BJP and the AAP.

New Delhi, April 12: To intensify its campaign in the MCD polls, the Congress has decided to deploy nearly 90 of its top leaders from Wednesday to canvass for party candidates in the civic election, to be held in Delhi on April 23.

Congress leaders, like Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid and Girija Vyas, will take strolls early morning in different parts of Delhi to interact with people about the party's blue prints to revive the civic bodies and make the city neat and clean, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said.

Maken said that he has written letters to senior Delhi Congress leaders, including former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, for joining the party's poll campaign. The list of heavyweight campaigners also includes names of Chief Minister's of Congress-ruled states like Virbhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh and V Narayanasamy of Puducherry.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said he will campaign for Congress candidates in the upcoming Delhi civic polls to woo South Indian voters settled in the national capital.

"There are over 30 lakh south Indians who have settled in the national capital and Congress is the only secular party that will protect them against a party like BJP," he told a gathering of Delhi South Indian Congress members.

The chief minister said he will campaign in areas like R K Puram, Chattarpur, Indraprastha and Mayur Vihar on April 19 and 20. According to Narayanasamy, south Indians should be elected into local bodies in Delhi to ensure their issues are addressed.

"South Indians should be given a chance to govern and slowly they should be elevated to govern in the assembly as well," he said.

The high voltage campaign will commence with former Union minister Shashi Tharoor visiting the Jahanpanah forest today to interact with morning walkers over ways to improve primary education services of the municipal corporations, Maken said.

Jairam Ramesh will visit Bhalaswa and Gazipur landfill sites on April 13 and April 16 respectively to work on Congress' promise of making Delhi "zero landfill" city, he said.

Salman Khurshid will visit Tahirpur on the morning of April 15 to talk to people on primary health services provided by the municipal corporation, Maken said.

The Congress is keenly contesting the elections for 272 wards in the three municipal corporations of Delhi and is pitted against the BJP and the AAP. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been ruled by the BJP for the last 10 years.

PTI