National

Delhi Ministers manage the event

NEW DELHI: With party leaders and office-bearers competing to put up varieties of signboards across the city, all roads appeared to be leading to the Talkatora stadium, where the All-India Congress Committee session was held on Saturday.

Display boards fixed to poles on a stretch of nearly10 km guided the delegates to the venue. The photographs of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi far outnumbered those of Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi on the signboards.

Among the prominent ‘workers’ who had put up these boards were East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit; Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Naresh Kumar; secretary Aman Arora; former secretary Jagdish Sharma; and All-India Mahila Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Mr. Arora was more ‘innovative’ with his banners cut in the shape of the Congress’ ‘hand’. The venue, too, was all decked up for the occasion with Congress flags vying for space with “welcome” boards and banners.

The task of preparing for the event had been delegated to Ministers. While Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf led a team to transport the delegates, Health Minister Yoganand Shastri and his team took care of the arrangements at the health centre.

The job of providing the nearly 10,000 people with snacks, tea and coffee along with other beverages fell on Education Minister Arvinder Singh. Urban Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan was responsible for flower decoration, while Industries Minister Mangat Ram Singhal made arrangements for the lunch.

On the menu was the famous “chat” of Old Delhi, traditional North Indian dishes as also South Indian fare of “dosa”, “uttappam” and the like.

The fare was purely vegetarian with sweets thrown in.

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