Congress intensifies poll campaign in Delhi

New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) The Congress on Friday intensified its campaign in the national capital with former Union Minister Ajay Maken and Jay Prakash Agarwal holding meetings in several places across the city.

Maken, who is contesting from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat, interacted with the people of his constituency at Sat Nagar, East Punjabi Bagh, Greater Kailash-2, Pahargunj, East of Kailash, Mehrauli Road, Adhchini and Manakpura.

Interacting with the morning walkers of East Punjabi Bagh, the COngress leader accused the Narendra Modi government of bringing business and economic activity to a standstill.

Highlighting the incident of Mayapuri, where a scuffle broke out between the sealing drive team and the businessmen, Maken said, "During my tenure as Cabinet Minister I designated 22 industrial areas, notified 3,000 roads and made 170 amendments to the Master Plan to protect the trader community and business in general."

Addressing the residents of Satnagar, he emphasized that business was protected and it prospered during the Manmohan Singh's administration.

Highlighting the issue of inflation, he said, household expenditure has increased manifold - a gas cylinder that used to cost Rs 380 under the UPA regime is now costing Rs 950-1,000.

He said he was accessible to even those who supported BJP and that members of BJP trader wing had full access to him when he was Minister so as to address the problems of traders including the problem of sealing.

While addressing the residents in Greater Kailash-2 area of the city, he said that business and economy in general was going downhill.

He pointed out that demonetization, badly conceived and executed Goods and Services Tax (GST) and sealing of commercial establishments were draconian decisions of the Modi government.

Maken also addressed similar meeting in East of Kailash colony, Adhchini.

On the other hand, Congress's candidate from Chandani Chowk Jai Prakash Agrawal conducted a 'Padyatra' as part of his voters' reach-out programme. His Padyatra covered the areas of Jama Masjid, Matia Mahal, Urdu Market, Chikti Kabra, Turkman Gate and appealed the people of Chandni Chowk to vote for him.

During his padyatra, Agrawal said, "This year's election is witnessing a Congress wave in the country. The country doesn't run on rhetorics. I am confident that people of Chandni Chowk will offer complete support to the Congress Party. The BJP-led government at Centre will be voted out of power this time. I am not going to make false claims to the people."

Agrawal also said that it was not easy to do business in India. "A trader goes through a lot while setting up his business, he sometimes has to mortgage his property to get the money, take loans from the bank. When the business gets affected, a trader plunges into debt and might even lose his property to clear the debts."

He said both, the BJP at Centre and AAP in the state, were involved in fights but they never really thought about the well-being of the business community.

Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit who is also contesting from North-East parliamentary seat and Aravinder Singh Loely, who is fighting the elections from East Delhi also held several programmes in their constituencies.

The elections in the national capital are scheduled on May 12, in the sixth phase. The Congress was whitewashed from all the seven seats in 2014 elections.