 "Rahul Gandhi")
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday exhorted party workers to forget groupism and work unitedly to win the crucial election to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He asked party workers to put in extra efforts to strengthen the organisation to unseat the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance, which has been ruling the BMC for the past 25 years. Polls to the Indian's richest civic body are slated for 2017.
Taking note of the intra-party rivalary despite Congress’ drubbing in the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections held in 2014, Rahul said a show of unity will help the party grow in the metropolis and help win the Mayoral post in the civic body. He was addressing workers at Malad in north Mumbai on Friday.
Rahul’s advice came close on the heels of noisy scenes at a party meeting held two days ago to discuss the programmes during his visit with slogan-shouting by rival factions. His visit also comes soon after the party’s central leadership had sought an explanation from Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam over two articles in a party journal criticising Jawaharlal Nehru and terming Sonia Gandhi's father a “fascist soldier”.
The disciplinary action committee of the party, headed by senior leader A K Antony, had also issued a show-cause notice to Nirupam.
Taking a dig at the BJP-led government for its announcement to provide Rs 100 crore to make Mumbai a smart city, Rahul said these are mere slogans with no action on the ground. He criticised the Centre for ‘neglecting’ the poor and the farmers.
He targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Swachh Bharat campaign saying Mumbai would not become clean through such campaigns or the Prime Minister’s speeches alone. “Why is Mumbai not clean even though the BJP is in power both at the Centre and in Maharashtra?” he asked.
