New Delhi: The India News Manch organised on 22 January saw several brainstorming sessions on the strategies of three political parties—BJP, Congress and AAP—for winning the Delhi Assembly polls scheduled for 8 February. While Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and other AAP leaders listed the achievements of the AAP government, the opposition Congress and the BJP accused the AAP government of only indulging in advertisements and blaming the Central government for its failures.
Leading the charge against the AAP government, Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra said the Kejriwal government was responsible for turning Delhi into an unlivable city. “Delhi has literally become unlivable in the last five years rule of Arvind Kejriwal government. Roads, public transport and traffic situation are at their worst, while all development projects have been stalled by this government. Pollution is at its all-time high and people are even deprived of clean drinking water,” he said.
Chopra, who has been assigned the task of reviving Congress in Delhi, asserted that his party would return to power with a majority. At the same time, he maintained that under no circumstances, the Congress would support AAP in case of a hung Assembly. And even if the Congress fell short of the numbers, it won’t take any support from the AAP.
The event also saw heated debated between AAP’s Sanjay Singh and BJP vice president Shyam Jaju over the claims of development in Delhi. Jaju attacked AAP for spending money on publicity rather than doing any development work. He alleged that for higher studies only four Dalit students got Delhi governments’ loan, but the AAP government spend crores of rupees on the advertisement. “BJP government regularised the unauthorised colonies, but AAP is trying to take credit for that. They are spending money on publicity of their mohalla clinics, but Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal goes for treatment to private hospitals spending lakhs of rupees from government treasury,” he alleged.
Jaju also criticised the Delhi government for poor water quality and pollution in the city. He attacked the AAP government for not implementing the Ayushman Bharat Yojana and other pro-people measures taken by the BJP government at the Centre.
AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh, however, countered the allegations saying it was the AAP government which made water and power free for people of Delhi. He said the people of Delhi won’t get carried away by the narratives of nationalism and Hindutva, but they would vote for the development works done by the AAP. He claimed the AAP would win all 70 seats in the capital.
During another session on the “role of women in Delhi polls”, Congress’ Ragini Nayak accused the AAP of completely ignoring the women in its five years of rule. “For more than four years, the AAP government kept blaming the Centre for its non-performance. But the AAP must answer what stopped it from creating women’s protection groups and women commandoes, as promised by the party in its manifesto. The AAP government could not spend even 5% of the Nirbhaya fund. Chief Minister Kejriwal must answer why he did not include any woman in his Cabinet as a minister. Why does the PAC, the top decision-making body of AAP, does not have a woman leader,” Nayak said.
AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon countered the charges, saying the limitations of Delhi government over issues of law and order and services essentially prevented the government from acting on women’s safety. She, however, claimed that the government tried to come up with alternative solutions where it failed to fulfil promises.
In another session, AAP’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj accused the BJP of diverting the attention from core issues of development and raking up the narratives of Hindutva and nationalism. BJP leader Ashish Sood responded by saying it was the Congress and the AAP that were misleading the people over issues of CAA and NRC. He also accused the AAP of deteriorating infrastructure in the capital.