Lured with biryani, Rs 100 and promise of homes, crowds turn up for Rahul Gandhi

Congress VicePresident Rahul Gandhi began his speech with Til gul ghya god god bola Have tilgul talk sweetly the traditional greeting on Makar Sankrant at Malad on Friday While his speech saw a huge crowd it seems some had gathered because they had allegedly been sweettalked into attending and given promises of what they would get if they did midday spoke to a number of people at the event While some said that they were promised R100 one said that she was given biryani before the event Some residents of Kandivlirsquos Damu Nagar who had lost their homes to the fire said that corporator Ajanta Yadav had promised them housesCongress Vice President Rahul Gandhi arrives to address a workersrsquo meet at Malad yesterday The Congress leader arrived more or less on time but had to wait while other leaders gave their speechesAlso ReadRahul Gandhis Mumbai padyatra over power tariff hike evokes good responseMakar Sankrant was unusually busy for Malad this year as the Congress had organised a karyakarta melava workersrsquo meet to be addressed by Gandhi at the St Josephrsquos School ground A moderately sized school ground it had the stage at its far end and a shamiana for the audience All routes to the ground were decorated with Congress posters and banners The police as well as traffic police were having a busy time controlling the situation as people thronged the gates in large groups Inside the shamiana people were given vadapav and packaged water since they had been waiting for hours The crowds largely consisted of people from the Malad Kandivli Charkop areas including Malwani Congress MLA Aslam Shaikhrsquos stronghold Sanjay Nirupam Kripashankar Singh Priya Dutt were also present for the meetingAlso ReadRahul Gandhi blasts RSS BJPs rigid thinkingGandhi sat next to the AICC secretary Sanjay Nirupam Nirupam passed him a chit with ldquoTil gul ghya god god bolardquo Have tilgul speak sweetly the traditional Marathi greeting on Makar Sankrant written on it Gandhi used it in the beginning of his speech to the delight of the crowds He said ldquoI am going to take this phrase back with me to Delhi And whenever Congressmen fight amongst themselves I will say this to themrdquo PicsSayyed Sameer AbediAlso ReadStart ups and intolerance cant go together says Rahul GandhiThe event started more or less on time Gandhirsquos convoy arrived at the venue around 220 pm but since other leaders gave elaborate speeches Rahul dressed in his trademark white kurta stood up to speak only around 3 pm Starting off with ldquoTil gul ghya god god bolardquo Gandhi tried to reach out to the masses People instantly cheered and some shouted slogans like ldquoRahul Gandhi ki jairdquo His speech ended in less than 30 minutes and he made a swift exitChetna Kadam claimed she was promised Rs 100 if she attended the speechPromisesThis reporter chatted with several people from the audience and there emerged shocking details of how the party had allegedly got them to attend the event Money food housesthere was no end to the things allegedly promised to get people to come and join the meeting on a hot afternoonMahmooda said Indira Gandhirsquos son Sanjay Gandhi was comingChetna Kadam and Lata Joshi seated in the back row said ldquoWe have been promised Rs 100 by her Neelam Mhatre for attending Otherwise why would we leave our household choresrdquo Both are residents of Charkop and had reached the venue around 1 pm ldquoToday is the day of Sankrant We were supposed to do puja in the house The programme was supposed to start at 1 that is why I couldnrsquot even do puja properly and rushed here A lot of housework is remainingrdquo When asked who promised them money Joshi said that Mhatre promised it to them and that it will be delivered to their houses soon ldquoYou also contact the person from Congress you will also get itrdquo she saidHamida said they were given biryani to attend right Kastura of Damu Nagar said they were promised housesHomes for allThere were a large number of people from Kandivlirsquos Damu Nagar attending the event This is the area where a major fire ravaged 2000 shanties last monthKastura a resident who had lost her house in the fire said they had been promised houses by local corporator Ajanta Yadav ldquoYadav has called all of us here She arranged buses for us Do bus bhar ke log aaye hai Two buses full of people arrivedrdquo she told midday Kastura and people like her were allegedly given passes by Yadav along with transportation ldquoI have come here for a house Yadav said we would be given housesrdquo When asked how big the houses would be where and when they would get them she said she did not knowEven Alka Vidyadhar another resident of Damu Nagar said they had been promised houses by Yadav ldquoI lost Rs 80000 in the fire I had my shanty there and that was the day we all had got our salaries Fridge TV cash everything got burnt Right now we are living there in another shanty Today we have been brought here in luxury busesrdquo she saidShakeela another resident said that they were promised breakfast ldquoPata nahin kya milegardquo she saidBiryani treatHamida a resident of Ambulwadi in Malwani had been waiting in the crowd for about two hours before Rahul Gandhi arrived Dressed in a burkha she said ldquoAslamrsquos Shaikh men have been coming to our area for 34 days and registering us for the event They gave us passes and even arranged a bus for us Today morning we were given biryanirdquo she said ldquoI donrsquot know if wersquoll get anything in the evening as wellrdquoSanjay GandhiMehmooda a resident of Malwani unit no8 was sitting in one of the front rows with her daughter In a reply that said a lot about the sorry state of affairs in the country when asked who is coming for the event she said Indira Gandhirsquos son Sanjay is coming When asked why she was attending the event she said their local Congress people asked them to come They had not been offered anything