Delhi township all set for Congress plenary

NEW DELHI - The sprawling tented township of Burari in northwest Delhi was buzzing with activity early Sunday as Congress activists began thronging the venue in large numbers right from 7 a.m. for the 83rd Congress plenary session.

The road to the venue was decked with posters and banners of party president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress president and prime minister are expected to come to the venue in a helicopter for the function that is to start around 10 a.m. Sonia Gandhi will set the tone for the meeting with her inaugural address.

Hundreds of personnel of the Delhi Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in and around the tented township.

“We are not taking any chances,” a senior police official said.

Personnel of the Special Protection Force (SPG) will be guarding top VVIPs including Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

National Security Guard and Delhi Police commandos have been deployed to tackle any security problem, police sources said.

Apart from the elaborate security in place, organizers have also made extensive parking arrangements in view of the large number of participants expected to arrive in their own vehicles.

While a huge area has been reserved for general parking, stickers of specific colours have been issued to All India Congress Committee (AICC) members, mediapersons and other invitees.

Those who came early didn’t have to face any traffic trouble but as the volume of vehicles arriving increased, there were traffic bottlenecks on the way.

A party worker who reached the venue at about 8.30 a.m. said she was stuck on the way for about 20 minutes.

“I was stuck for about 20 minutes as the approach road is narrow and vehicles are taking time to get into allotted parking lots,” she said.

The venue also saw some commotion as not all mediapersons were allowed into the venue with organisers insisting on Press Information Bureau (PIB) cards.

Delhi is hosting the plenary after 32 years. This is party’s 83rd plenary with the last such meeting having been held in Hyderabad in 2006. Delhi Congress chief J.P. Agarwal, who heads the reception committee, said that at least 20,000 people will take part in the plenary.

The plenary meeting Sunday will take up discussion on a political resolution. A resolution marking culmination of 125th anniversary celebrations of the Congress will also be adopted.

The subjects committee meeting Saturday gave a final shape to the economic, political and foreign affairs resolutions, which will be taken up for discussion. The plenary will draw to a close Monday.