Hindustan Times | MCD polls: Ministers, CMs seek support for BJP

Dec 02,2022

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday pulled out all the stops, with several party bigwigs, including Union ministers and leaders from other BJP-ruled states, holding roadshows and rallies in Delhi on the last day of campaigning for the December 4 MCD elections.

Besides senior Delhi unit leaders, Union minister Anurag Thakur, Piyush Goyal and Hardeep Puri canvassed support for party candidates in different localities across the city. Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Dhami and Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also campaigned for the party candidates in different areas. The party held 250 Vijay Sankalp road shows across the city capping up its intense campaign for the civic polls.

Having ruled the MCD for three consecutive terms, the BJP is eyeing an ambitious fourth straight win in the civic polls that are being held after the unification of the three civic bodies in Delhi by the Centre in May.

Leading campaign rallies in Patel Nagar, Naraina, Mangolpuri and Ranjit Nagar, Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said that the Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal has openly given “protection to rioters and corrupt people”.“Arvind Kejriwal came to power by talking of politics of change. For them, the meaning of changing politics was to openly give protection to rioters and corrupt people. Today, rioters, corrupt and criminals from Delhi to Punjab have the open protection of Arvind Kejriwal. These are the same people who did the work of throwing the whole of Delhi into riots on the arrival of the US President to India. Petrol bombs and stones were recovered from the houses of AAP leaders and Arvind Kejriwal was saving these rioters, giving them a clean chit.”

The AAP did not comment on Thakur’s remarks.

Thakur also targeted the AAP over the alleged cases against its ministers Satyendar Jain and Manish Sisodia. “The government whose health minister is enjoying a massage in the jail and still is not resigning, it shows that they are not only corrupt but also shameless. Kejriwal’s education minister has direct links with the liquor mafia. What compulsion is there that Jain and Manish Sisodia are not being removed?” he said.

Union minister for textiles, commerce and industry Piyush Goyal also held led a road show in east Delhi. He blamed the AAP for fostering corruption and inadequate development works in the city. “Kejriwal is seeking votes from the people of Delhi in the name of his governance. You should vote and defeat the corrupt and non-performing Kejriwal government of Delhi.”

Union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri targeted the AAP government in Delhi for not delivering on its promise to provide in-situ rehabilitation to slum dwellers in the city. He cited the houses allocated to the slum residents in Delhi by the Central government, and promised that if the BJP comes to power in MCD and the state government, all housing projects for the poor will be completed.

“The Kejriwal government has deprived the people of Delhi from the benefits of the development and social schemes of the Centre, but now the Central government is working fast to provide good houses to the poor in Delhi under the Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makan scheme,” said Puri.

Puri said that the AAP will lose the December 4 MCD polls because it has failed to meet housing needs of slum dwellers and also the aspirations of the middle class. “People vote as per what they see around their surroundings. I campaigned in two wards in Mundka today where both the councilors and MLA belonged to the AAP. The locals said that the last time any development work took place in the area was when Sahib Singh Verma was chief minister in Delhi way back in the 1990s,” the minister said.

Puri said that under Modi government’s schemes, 10 lakh people will be benefited under Jahna Jhuggi Wahin Makan scheme and 50 lakh will benefit under PM-UDAY scheme.