PUNE, Sept 5: It was a day of hectic election campaigning when the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) seemed to surpass each other in trying to target the Muslim vote-bank by organising rallies and meetings in different areas of the city today.The Congress had the ace-card of thespian Dilip Kumar who addressed three public rallies beginning from Bhople chowk in Pune cantonment, followed by Sant Kabeer chowk in Nana Peth and Mominpura in Ghorpadi. The NCP on the other hand had former president of the Haj committee and NCP national committee member Salamatulla, who addressed a series of public rallies in almost the same areas beginning from Bhople chowk, and later near Alpana theatre and at Dalal chowk in Mominpura. Salamatulla, who is also president of All India Wakf Board, also addressed a rally of minority workers, which was mainly attended by youths.Addressing the workers, Salamatulla attacked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and said Sharad Pawar formed a separate party to save the country. He said the Congress did not fight against the ``white-skinned'' rulers to hand back the nation to them after 50 years of Independence. He said Pawar had saved the nation from committing the blunder by raising the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin.Salamatulla appealed the people not hand over the keys of the nation to a foreign born person. He said the NCP was formed to take care of the nation. He said people should elect maximum number of NCP MPs so that Pawar could become prime minister. He said there was no opportunity for growing leadership of other than Gandhi family as against the NCP. He said Pawar was able and strong leader to lead the country.
