Sealing Issue Will Be "Waterloo" For BJP, AAP: Ajay Maken

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken Sunday warned the BJP and the AAP that the sealing of illegal commercial establishments will prove to be their "Waterloo" as people were ready to teach them a lesson in upcoming elections.

Mr Maken returned from abroad on Saturday after a health check-up and joined the party's mahapanchayat at Rangpuri, where he asserted he will continue to serve people and stand by them "despite not being 100 per cent fit".

He said it was up to the Congress leadership to take a decision on his role as Delhi Congress president.

"Sealing issue will prove to be the Waterloo of the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party. They are responsible for the illegal sealing, and should apologise to villagers and Poorvanchalis," Mr Maken told the gathering at the mahapanchayat, where people from villages in and around the national capital had converged.

The Battle of Waterloo, which took place in Belgium in 1815, marked the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century.

Mr Maken said the Congress was ready to pay "any price" to save the people of Delhi from the "illegal" sealing drive underway and would carry forward a 'nyay yudh' (war for justice) campaign against it with a renewed vigour.

The mahapanchayat decided to launch a Grameen Rastha Roko Andolan and "seal" the boundaries of Delhi if the sealing drive was not stopped.

Attacking the BJP, which held a Purvanchal Mahakumbh in Delhi Sunday, Mr Maken said the party was the "enemy of Poorvanchalis" as they have been forced to leave the national capital as industries, especially domestic units, have been affected due to the sealing drive.

Senior Congressman Sajjan Kumar, addressing the mahapanchayat, alleged that both the BJP and the AAP, who had got the support of the villagers in previous elections, were "destroying" domestic industries through the sealing drive.

Nyay Yudh campaign convenor Mukesh Sharma said the BJP was trying to give a "communal colour" to the sealing issue.

"BJP's Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari has said again and again that the sealing drive should be carried out in Okhla and Seelampur areas, which showed the BJP has been totally rattled and therefore it was trying to divert the attention of people by giving the issue a communal colour," Mr Sharma alleged.

Mr Maken, whose resignation as Delhi Congress chief was reported by a newspaper last week, said on the sidelines of the event that he had informed the party leadership before he had gone abroad for a third opinion on his orthopaedic ailment.

"I will abide by any decision of the party and keep on fighting for the issues of Delhi as much as my health permits," he told reporters.