Hindustan Times | BJP, AAP step up MCD pitch with roadshows

Nov 21,2022

The national capital was the stage for heavy duty rallies on Sunday, two weeks before Delhi votes in the December 4 municipal polls, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) kicking off their campaigns.

A host of senior BJP leaders and chief ministers took out rallies and roadshows on Sunday, in a bid to drum up support for the party, which governed the city’s municipal bodies for three straight terms. The party saw campaigns by BJP chief JP Nadda, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Jitendra Singh and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, as well as his Haryana and Uttarakhand counterparts, Manohar Lal Khattar and Pushkar Singh Dhami.

In turn, AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who earlier on Sunday tweeted that the BJP was “going to attack Delhi”, launched his party’s campaign in the race to the Civic Centre with the slogan “Sarkar Kejriwal Ki, Parshad Kejriwal Ka”.

Kejriwal’s rally in central Delhi’s Paharganj also saw former MP and Congress leader Mahabal Mishra join the AAP ahead of the MCD polls. Mishra’s son, Vinay, joined the AAP ahead of the 2020 assembly elections and is currently the party’s MLA from Dwarka.

Votes in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls will be counted on December 7, bringing an end to a tempestuous few months for the civic body. Elections to the erstwhile three civic bodies were delayed earlier this year after the Centre decided to unify the municipality and redraw the wards.

The AAP, which is hoping to wrest control of the civic body, has labelled the move a delay tactic intent on keeping Delhi’s ruling party from securing victory in the elections. The BJP, however, has said the move was essential civic reform to fix the body’s flagging finances.

On Monday, Nadda alleged that the Delhi government was “steeped in corruption”.

“The people of Delhi are tired of the Kejriwal government. It is a government that is drowned in corruption. The number of people gathered here indicates that BJP will be blessed,” said Nadda during a two-hour roadshow from Hamdard Chowk in south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar.

Nadda was accompanied by his party’s South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri and party candidates Neeraj Gupta, Savita Devi and Poonam Bhati, who are contesting the polls from wards in Sangam Vihar assembly constituency.

At a roadshow in north-east Delhi’s Bhajanpura, Sarma said the country needed a uniform civil code, even as he referred to the murder of Shraddha Walkar, allegedly by her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala.

a“Our country doesn’t need Aaftab, but a person like Lord Ram, a leader like PM Modi. We need Uniform Civil Code and law against love jihad. We need such laws where Aaftabs can be hanged to death,” said Sarma.

Senior BJP leaders hit out at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for his government’s failure to improve the city’s infrastructure, clean the Yamuna, address the air pollution problem despite having governments in Delhi and Punjab, among other issues.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh accompanied by West Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh held a roadshow in Uttam Nagar where he urged people to vote for BJP for comprehensive and “all-round” development.

Kejriwal, in his address, pitched his government’s work in improving Delhi’s education and health care systems, and promoted the AAP’s flagship power and water tariff subsidy programmes.

His party, he said, would clean up Delhi. The AAP has made Delhi’s sanitation mess one of its key points of attack. It has promised to make Delhi garbage-free, clean and beautiful, and said corruption will be ended by taking building plan processes online and regularising minor property alterations through one-time penalties and other measures if voted to power in the civic body.

“The AAP government transformed schools, hospitals and provided water and electricity. I appeal to everyone — give a chance to the AAP if you want Delhi to be cleaned. The AAP is running Delhi’s state government; it is now time to bring the AAP’s councillors to power…,” he said.

He added, “I will ensure cleanliness, revamp streets and arrange for water. Delhiites gave 67 out of 70 seats to the AAP in assembly elections; now give us 230 out of 250 seats in MCD as well. If you vote for the BJP, there will be more garbage mountains in Delhi. I will not let them create more garbage mountains in Delhi at any cost.”

Three waste mountains dot Delhi — in Ghazipur (one of the largest in India), Okhla and Bhalswa — posing serious health threats for residents, apart from being visual eyesores. Repeated deadlines to flatten the landfills have been missed, civic records have showed.

He also said the BJP was trying to stymie the AAP’s welfare programmes by branding them “revadi”.

“A lot of residents get free electricity and they are happy with that. They want free electricity but these people call it ‘free ki revadi’... Free electricity is your right and not ‘free ki revadi’. They make a fuss about it and call it ‘free ki revadi’ because they do not want people to get free electricity,” Kejriwal said, offering the latest parley in the ongoing debate about “freebie” culture and their impact on a state’s exchequer.