Rahul Gandhi exhorts his men to aim for BMC

Taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said both were losing their credibility quickly. He questioned the silence of Mr Modi on problems being faced by the poor. Ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, he said that Congress wanted to bring in change, make Mumbai cleaner and hence would have to win the election.

Mr Gandhi reached Mumbai on Friday to motivate party workers and sought to unite the feuding party leaders. To address the rally, he moved deep into a Mumbai suburb and travelled to Malad.

Sporting blue jeans and a white shirt, the clean-shaven Gandhi scion appeared relaxed. Taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who generally begins his speech in a local language, Mr Gandhi too began with “Tilgul ghya ani godd godd bola” (eat sesame cookies and speak sweetly) in an attempt to please the Marathi voters of Mumbai, who play an important role in the BMC elections.

In his speech, Mr Gandhi said that the BJP government’s credibility had “eroded very quickly”. “It is very well to give speeches, but Mr Modi is silent on problems faced by the poor He (Modi) spoke about ‘Clean India’. Modiji and his ministers took up jhadus (broom) and cleaned the roads.

“But, in Mumbai there is tonnes of solid waste. You wont be able to clean Mumbai by speeches and events,” Mr Gandhi added.

He further said, “There are talks of ‘start-ups and Connect India’.

These talks are nice, but there are poor people, domestic workers. India is theirs too. The government has forgotten them.”

“Ask anyone about the situation faced by farmers. They will cry while narrating their plight. You can’t leave the poor people, hawkers behind,” he said. In Uttar Pradesh, many people have demolished toilets built under the Clean India Mission, he added.

Mr Gandhi also criticised Mr Modi’s ambitious ‘Smart City Mission’ and said that during the UPA rule, they had allocated a lot more funds even to small cities. “When we were in power, we gave Rs 2,000 crore to a city like Nanded, while this (BJP) government gave just '100 crore to make Mumbai a smart city,” Mr Gandhi said.

Focusing on the BMC election, Mr Gandhi appealed to party workers to work for a victory. “Congress will have to get its candidate elected to the post of mayor in Mumbai and for that first we will have to win Mumbai, the state and then form our government at the Centre,” he said.

The BMC has been out of the Congress’ control for nearly three decades now.

All party leaders of the kept their differences aside to welcome Mr Gandhi. Mumbai president Sanjay Nirupam, MPCC president and former chief minister Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, along with other leaders were present at the rally. Mr Gandhi will participate in a padyatra (march) on Saturday morning. The march will start from Bandra Bandstand and end at Dharavi.