New Delhi, Nov 8 (IANS): With an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections, the Delhi Congress launched its month-long 'Delhi Nyay Yatra' from Rajghat on Friday to corner the Aam Aadmi Party government on issues related to corruption and lack of development.
Former Delhi Assembly Speaker and Congress National Treasurer Ajay Maken told IANS, "Our main objective is to expose the misdeeds of the Kejriwal government and the collusion between the BJP and the AAP.
“This is a government involved in corruption, continuously engaging in corrupt practices. The man who carries a Rs-2 pen in his pocket lives in a Rs-175 crore glass palace, owns carpets worth crores and walks on the streets, so if we are a party of the common man, then they are a party of VIPs," said Maken.
This yatra is seen as an attempt by the grand old party to regain its lost ground in the city ahead of the forthcoming Delhi Assembly polls.
Delhi Congress Chief Devender Yadav, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and former Delhi legislator Subhash Chopra were also present at the Yatra’s launch.
Yadav said during the Yatra, Congress workers will interact with residents of every Assembly constituency to expose the inaction and incompetence of the AAP government, which squandered the past 10 years in constant fights with Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena and the bureaucracy under Kejriwal and Atishi, without doing any constructive work.
Yadav said there was great enthusiasm among Delhi Congress workers to make the Yatra a success before the Assembly elections scheduled in February to pick a 70-member Assembly.
"Congress workers have taken inspiration from Rahul Gandhi’s 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering over 4,000 km, for the protection of the Constitution and democracy," he said.
On the lines of Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', the Congress workers and leaders would interact with the people of the city during the 'Delhi Nyay Yatra' and learn about the problems they have been facing in the last 10 years.
The march will be held in four phases and culminate in Timarpur on December 4.
The first phase would cover 16 Assembly constituencies starting from Chandni Chowk and the second phase from November 15 to 20 would cover 18 seats.
As many as 16 Assembly constituencies would be covered in the third phase from November 22 to 27 and 20 seats in the fourth phase from November 29 to December 4.
The Delhi Congress Chief said that the high level of corruption committed by the previous Kejriwal government was evident from the fact that the former Delhi Chief Minister, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Minister Satyendar Jain, and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and several MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party went to jail in connection with various corruption and criminal cases.
He added it was surprising that Kejriwal was still trying to mislead people and pretend that the broken roads, the toxic Yamuna water, and the air pollution were due to heavy vehicular traffic and were also the imagination of the people, and not because of the inefficiency and corruption of the AAP government.