The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s “well organised” rally has put city Congress leaders on their toes.
Sources say the party's high command has asked the city unit to leave no stone unturned to make Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s rally on Sunday a success.
From late Friday night, dozens of buses were seen parked outside the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee’s headquarters at Rajiv Bhawan.
A senior Congress leader said the party is planning to serve Rajasthani delicacies during the rally, and the attendees are likely to get a grand treat at the event.
Some 250 chefs will prepare food for audience at the rally. But as the Model Code of Conduct has been imposed, the serving and storage of food will not be brought from a hotel. “We have a mixed-vegetable dish made of potato, brinjal and spinach. For sweets, we have moong dal ka halwa. And we have pudiya, a Rajasthani dish prepared in refined oil,” said a senior Delhi Congress leader.
“The delicacies will be prepared for over 5,000 people, but we will keep stock for more than 7,000 people,” he added. Gandhi will seek public support for the election here, in what is probably seen as the party’s final attempt to gain some lost ground and unleash a counter-attack on the “Modi factor” and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The rally is scheduled at 4 pm at Ajmal Khan Park in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency, from where party MP Ajay Maken is contesting.
The venue is in the middle of Karol Bagh, considered to be a BJP stronghold. This will be the first rally of Sonia Gandhi outside slums, resettlement and unauthorised colonies in Delhi in the recent past.