Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi address during an election campaign rally in New Delhi on Sunday.
Attributing Congress' poor show in Delhi Assembly polls to losing touch with common people, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today said the party has deeply understood this and promised to include people from the grass-root in the party after Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking at a gathering of around 15,000 people in Ambedkar Nagar in South Delhi, Rahul said, "For the last 15 years there was a Congress government in Delhi. Lot of developmental work was done... but even after that Congress lost in the Assembly polls.
It was the same venue where Rahul had addressed an election rally during Assembly polls in Delhi where the low attendance by people had made the news. The party leaders were cautious this time not to allow such a scenario to repeat.
Last time when Rahul had begun to speak the crowd had started disbursing, an incident which had invited ridicule and sarcasm from the opposition parties as the then Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who was sharing the dais with Rahul, was recorded on camera asking people not to leave the ground.
While promising to include common man in the party, Rahul said, "If those doors are not opened, Congress will face troubles. You told us this thing. I want to tell people that we have deeply understood this."
"After election we will bring about changes in party structure in Delhi. We will include the common people in the new structure. We made a mistake and people of Delhi suffered due to this," he added.
Launching a scathing attack on AAP-led Delhi government, Rahul said the party made lofty promises to people, but later "ran away", leaving people of Delhi in a lurch.
"It is easy to make false promises. They (AAP) gave budget for electricity subsidy for only three months, but there are 12 months in a year, five years in a term.
"Budgets are not given for three months but for a year. The truth is that the people who were running the government have now run away. Some are seen in Varanasi, some in other places," the Congress Vice President said.
Justifying the Congress' decision to support AAP, Rahul said, "The opposition party came into power and we supported it. We thought they are the voice of people. They were new people and people had given call to them so we thought that our party should support them."
"They made many lofty promises about electricity, water and regularisation. But did they fulfil their promises? Did they regularise contractual workers, safai karamcharis?
Workers had sat on dharna, but AAP leaders did not meet them." he added.
Around 15,000 people had gathered in the south Delhi locality to listen to Rahul's rally. As the enclosure was not big enough to accommodate the entire crowd, many remained on the roadside to listen to the speech.
Looking at the scenario, Rahul, in a lighter vein, pointed toward Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh and said," the ground is small Arvinder ji."
Exuding confidence of a good performance in Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, the Delhi Congress chief said, "If gathering at a rally is a proof of voter's mood, we know how some people cancel rally after declaring the date. This crowd has given a message that they are with Congress. Congress has always supported common people's cause."
He further said, "People of Delhi has seen 15 years of Congress rule of development and also seen 49 days of "anarchist" rule where the government made false promises.
They have also seen eight years of "corrupt" BJP-led MCD rule. "The party, which has failed in removing corruption from a small organisation like MCD, is talking about removing corruption from the country."