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In Delhi, corruption an all-party plank for 2024: BJP ‘Sankalp Yatra’ to AAP’s ‘Main bhi Kejriwal’ | Political Pulse News

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Now that the dust has settled down following the Assembly polls in five states, the political pot has begun to boil again in the national capital. With the 2024 Lok Sabha polls just 4-5 months away, all the three leading parties in Delhi have started their respective campaigns, with “corruption” at the centre of their narrative.

Hoping to gain a head start, the BJP has launched its ‘Sankalp Yatra’ in Delhi by focusing its attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. According to sources, the campaign will cover around 600 locations across 11 revenue districts and make people aware about the Central government’s various developmental works and schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwal Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Garib Kalyan Yojana, etc, while laying the blame for any lack of delivery of these on AAP supremo Kejriwal.

“The party may have lost the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) polls to AAP, but we did win 100 seats, and are the main Opposition. Besides, the BJP has deep roots at the ward level. ‘Exposing’ how the AAP, which was born out of a corruption movement but has itself turned corrupt, had fetched votes during the civic polls. Now, with two of its ministers and one senior-most party leader in jail, we will take the message of how corrupt it is to every district and ward,” said a senior BJP member.

On its part, the AAP, defending its turf, has launched a door-to-door campaign with a slogan, “Corruption ka kaal, Kejriwal (Corruption’s enemy, Kejriwal)”. The AAP MLAs and other leaders have started covering ground to defend the AAP.

Having touched rock bottom in the 2022 MCD polls, the Congress is trying to rebuild itself in the national capital, starting with North-East Delhi, where it had won four MCD wards. Although both the AAP and the Congress are part of the Opposition INDIA bloc, it is unclear if the parties will strike an alliance in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls.

Festive offer

The Congress has brought back as the Delhi party president one of its strongest leaders, Arvinder Singh Lovely, who is not shying away from attacking the AAP.

Lovely told The Indian Express, “For us, seeking accountability and attacking corruption are both big issues… We have already started our Lok Sabha campaign on the basis of both — we have already organised four major rallies in Delhi in the first phase… More of such large public gatherings will be organised in the coming days, and, in the second phase, we will address issues of accountability of elected representatives and corruption in both the state and Central governments.”

The Delhi Congress chief said: “All our public meetings have focused on different issues. On accountability, we have questioned the lack of development of city villages, the Centre’s raising of property tax, which regularly bother the middle class and traders… On corruption, we have raised issues like sub-registrars not registering properties unless paid bribes, the Centre’s ‘licence raj’ that is breaking the back of the city’s traders and their businesses.”

Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva, too, flagged similar issues, alleging that the AAP had been “mired in scams”. He said, “Corruption is the biggest issue in Delhi and will usher in big change… Today, Kejriwal, who had promised to throw out any elected representative from his party at the mere allegation of corruption against them, is himself mired in scams.”

Sachdeva asked, “Why is the AAP, which converted the Delhi Jal Board into a den of corruption, mum on the Rs 5,000 crore scam we’ve highlighted? Who is responsible for the excise scam for which senior AAP leaders are behind bars? Kejriwal has lost touch with the people of Delhi. The day is not far when the people will deal crushing defeat to the AAP, first in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and then in the Assembly elections.”

Meanwhile, the AAP is trying to ‘fight fire with fire’. Kejriwal, who has himself been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged excise scam case, has launched a campaign ‘Main bhi Kejriwal (I’m Kejriwal too)’ in Delhi, collecting signatures on whether or not he should resign as CM, or run the government from jail, telling voters that he is the BJP’s next target.

With the AAP’s No. 2 and ex-Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia and senior party leaders Sanjay Singh and Satyendra Jain having been arrested, the AAP has asked other leaders and its volunteers to go door-to-door and tell people how the BJP was allegedly trying to ‘destroy’ their party with ‘fake’ corruption cases, and was trying to arrest their ‘son’ or ‘brother’ (Kejriwal) who, the party claims, has “revolutionised” education and healthcare while providing free electricity, water, etc. in the city.

Gopal Rai, Durgesh Pathak, Saurabh Bharadwaj and other old-timers from the time of the Anna Hazare movement are all part of this campaign.

Speaking at a ‘Mai Bhi Kejriwal’ meet, Delhi AAP convener Gopal Rai said, “The public knows all accusations against the AAP are false. The only reason for this is that the BJP knows it can’t defeat Kejriwal in elections… People of Delhi will only vote for Kejriwal, so the Modi government is conspiring against him.”

Rai also said, “The BJP wants to topple the AAP government through deceit. We will never let this conspiracy succeed. We are not the ones caught in the trap set by the BJP. To thwart the conspiracy, we are going to Delhiites and taking their opinion.”



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Mohd Aman

Editor in Chief Approved by Indian Government

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