Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 4: Amid protests led by women from Punjab outside his Delhi residence claiming that the Aam Aadmi Party government in their state has failed to fulfil its pre-election promise to provide Rs 1,000 per month to every woman, the AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal launched a scathing attack on the Congress and the BJP accusing them of working in alliance to oppose his party.
“The Congress and the BJP should officially announce that they are contesting Delhi assembly elections together against our party,” Mr Kejriwal said on Saturday even while asserting that the AAP government had delivered on all the pre-poll promises to refute the protesters claim of not providing cash allowance to women in Punjab.
“Congress should not worry about us,” Mr Kejriwal said. “Those women belong to their (Congress and BJP) party. They have not come from Punjab, the women in Punjab are with us. They have faith in AAP. Congress and BJP should officially announce that they are contesting elections together against AAP in Delhi.” Dismissing the Congress, the former Delhi Chief Minister said, “Don’t take Congress seriously.”
Mr Kejriwal also promised to waive the “inflated” water bills received by some residents in Delhi if his party returns to power in the upcoming Assembly polls in the national capital next month. Mr Kejriwal said people were “distressed” due to water bills worth thousands and lakhs of rupees being sent to them by the Delhi Jal Board.
He alleged that the inflated water bills started arriving after he went to jail and urged people not to pay those bills. “I have said this earlier, but today I am making a formal announcement: when AAP comes back to power after the assembly polls, these inflated bills will be waived. Those who think their bills are incorrect need not pay them,” the former Delhi Chief Minister said.
The AAP government provides free 20,000 litres of water per month and over 12 lakh households in the city have benefitted from the scheme, he added. “I want to publicly and officially announce that those who think their bills are wrong, they need not pay. Wait for the elections; AAP will form the government, and we will waive off those wrong bills.”
The ‘half-state’ of New Delhi is a Union Territory and an Assembly. It is jointly administered by the central government (presently ruled by BJP) and the local government of Delhi (presently ruled by AAP), and serves as the capital of the nation as well as the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.
Women from Punjab accused the AAP-led Punjab government of not fulfilling its pre-election promise to provide Rs 1,000 per month to every woman in the state. The protesters allege that AAP has prepared similar welfare schemes for women in Delhi ahead of assembly elections in the national capital scheduled this year. AAP’s Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana in Delhi proposes a Rs 2,100 monthly stipend for women over 18.
“We have come from Amritsar to put forward our matters. Do not cheat the women of Delhi as you did with the women of Punjab,” a woman told reporters while being detained by Delhi police. “Do not make a promise of Rs 2,100 to the women of Delhi.” On December 22, Mr Kejriwal had announced the launch of registrations for the ‘Mukhya Mantri Mahila Sanmman Yojana’ to provide women residing in Delhi with Rs 2,100 per month, if the AAP was voted back to power.
The Congress which was in power in Punjab before the AAP defeated it in Assembly election in 2022, reportedly cautioned Delhi residents against the “fake and bogus promises of AAP and Kejriwal. They warned the women about Rs 2,100 monthly stipend promised by Kejriwal, citing the example of Punjab, where a similar promise was made three years ago, but nothing has been done till now.
The BJP too called AAP “fake and fraud”. Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya posted a video on X and said the woman whose photo has been used in the advertisement of Rs 2,100 per month scheme promise of AAP is a “BJP voter and her photo has been used without asking her.”
The union home minister Amit Shah also attacked Kejriwal and narrated an incident when some children went to meet him at his residence. “So I asked then what has Kejriwal ji done? One child said Kejriwal has built a big ‘Sheesh Mahal’ worth Rs 45 crore for himself,” Shah said.
The Union home minister reminded former Delhi CM that when he entered politics, he used to say that he will not take a government car or a government bungalow. “Today he has built ‘Sheesh Mahal’ for himself. Kejriwal ji, you will have to give an account to the people of Delhi,” Shah added.
The elections to the 70-member Delhi assembly are likely to be held in February. The Election Commission of India is expected to announce poll dates in the next days. The term of the current assembly in Delhi expires on February 23, 2025.
The BJP on Saturday released the first list of its 29 candidates fielding former MP Parvesh Verma from the New Delhi seat against Arvind Kejriwal. It has named another former MP Ramesh Bidhuri from Kalkaji, where Chief Minister and AAP candidate Atishi as well as another former MP Alka Lamba (Congress) are in the fray.
BJP has also fielded Sardar Tarvinder Singh Marwah from Jangpura constituency to contest against the former Delhi deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The Congress has also fielded former mayor Farhad Suri from this constituency. Former Delhi Transport Minister, Kailash Gehlot, once a close aide of Arvind Kejriwal, left AAP and joined the BJP months before the elections, and will be contesting from the Bijwasan seat.
Arvinder Singh Lovely, who was a minister in Sheila Dikshit’s cabinet from 2003 to 2013, left the Congress last year and joined the BJP, he will now be contesting from the Gandhinagar seat in east Delhi.
The AAP has released the names of all the candidates that will be contesting in the Assembly elections. The AAP has been in power since 2015, securing a thumping majority twice in the Assembly elections, but was defeated in all the 7 Lok Sabha seats by the BJP in 2019 and again in 2024 when it contested the Parliamentary elections jointly with the Congress. Allies in the Opposition bloc INDIA, the Congress and AAP are fighting against each other in the Delhi polls.
