New Delhi: In the run up to the Delhi municipal polls, the date for which is yet to be announced, BJP National President J.P. Nadda slammed the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi for “destroying” the capital and alleged that it had surpassed the Congress when it came to graft.
Nadda was addressing the ‘Panch Parmeshwar Sammelan’ of around 13,000 booth-level party workers at Delhi’s Ramlila Ground Sunday.
Attacking both the Congress and AAP, Nadda stated that over the years, “the Indian National Congress has remained neither Indian nor National, or Congress but a ‘bhai-behen party’ (brother and sister party). But the BJP stuck to its ideologies. PM (Narendra) Modi has fulfilled the promise of sabka saath, sabka vishwas, sabka vikas (everyone’s support, everyone’s development and everyone’s trust)”.
Asserting that the BJP won’t allow the AAP’s corrupt government to stay, Nadda said: “Kejriwal, tumne Dilli ka haal kiya bekaar, aur tumhein ab jaana hoga aur yahaan Bhartiya Janata Party ko aana hoga (Kejriwal, you have destroyed Delhi and it is time for you to depart and for BJP to arrive).”
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has been under BJP rule for the past three consecutive terms with the AAP aggressively trying to wrest power.
The MCD elections were earlier scheduled to be held in May this year, but were delayed after the Centre decided to unify Delhi’s three civic bodies into one to decrease the number of wards.
Now, with the election coming closer, not just BJP, but AAP and the Congress, too, have ramped up their poll-related activities in Delhi.
Also read: How Centre’s Delhi Municipal Corporation bill seeks to curtail AAP govt’s power over civic body
‘AAP government made for sharab mafia’
After certain provisions in the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, 1957, were tweaked to allow the Lieutenant-Governor to have the final say in civic body matters, Kejriwal had tweeted on 13 October: “BJP has conceded defeat even before the MCD elections”. In the same tweet, he asked the people of Delhi to not “waste” their votes on the BJP, a “losing party”.
At the rally, attacking Kejriwal over the Delhi Excise Policy case, Nadda said that the AAP government is corrupt. “They sing about the Delhi Model worldwide, but they don’t answer to the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India).”
Before Nadda took the stage, BJP Delhi President Adesh Gupta had said, “This rally is a clarion call for victory. It is the beginning of the end of a lying, corrupt and propagandist government. This government is made for ‘Sharab Mafias’ (alcohol mafia). They don’t care about better infrastructure. The people now know their truth.”
He added, “Scheme to scam is the other name for Delhi government. The Arvind Kejriwal government and corruption have become synonymous to each other. The Vijay Sankalp Yatra for BJP will begin here, just like in 2017.”
Meanwhile, Kejriwal tweeted on 13 October that the same Excise policy that wasn’t allowed to be implemented in Delhi “is doing wonders in Punjab”.
‘Not just political, but social face’
Extolling the BJP’s numbers in Parliament and their recent electoral victories in Bihar, Assam and other states, Nadda said: “We are the biggest party. We are the only party that runs on ‘janaadhar’. From Ladakh to Karnataka, from Gujarat to Tripura, BJP has won them all.”
He added that the BJP is not just a political face. “During Covid, we distributed 50 crore food packets, 30 crore ration kits and 80 crore masks. We sent 25 crore vaccine doses to the world. India is no more a country that takes but a country that gives under the leadership of PM Modi. This is our social face. Given the work our party members and cadres undertake, I am assured victory is definite for us”, Nadda said.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: How Modi govt’s MCD overhaul fits into BJP plan to corner AAP in Delhi civic polls