AAP, BJP accused lock horns over tours by party leaders

While the AAP is in power in the Delhi government, the BJP rules all three MCDs.

A war of words broke out between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday with leaders of both the parties accusing each other of going on personal tours, within India and abroad, on government money.

AAP leader and MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak addressing a press conference. (Image via Twitter)

Durgesh Pathak, AAP’s in charge of municipal affairs, accused Delhi BJP leaders of going on trips at the expense of the municipal corporations in Delhi (MCD) and demanded a probe into it. The BJP dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and hit back, accusing AAP leaders of going on foreign trips on government’s expense.

While the AAP is in power in the Delhi government, the BJP rules all three MCDs.

“Several BJP councillors including Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta, mayors and officials have taken several trips inside and outside India on MCD’s expense. On one hand, employees of the BJP-ruled MCDs are starving because they have not been paid salaries and on the other hand BJP leaders are using MCD funds for their trips,” said Pathak in a press conference at the party’s head office in central Delhi.

He said, “The AAP demands that the BJP-ruled MCD must publish a white paper declaring all such trips taken by the BJP councillors or mayors within 48 hours and set up a probe into the matter.”

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said the allegations were baseless. He said it was an attempt by the AAP to malign the image of BJP-ruled MCDs.

In a statement issued later, the BJP said, “Trips by ministers of Delhi government or mayors of MCDs to other cities is a normal protocol affair. The fact of the matter is that the Delhi government is bearing expenses of many political tours of AAP ministers including Manish Sisodia to several states like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand under the garb of study tours of schools in those states. MCDs are in deep financial crunch due to Arvind Kejriwal government’s withholding funds since 2020.”

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said two trips taken in 2018 and 2019 by former MCD mayors were marked as “disputed”. “Here, it is pertinent to mention that in 2018-19, the then-mayor got the permission and financial clearance to attend a conference in London which he himself cancelled in view of hefty expenses… Mr Pathak is misleading people with his claims that there are several such unpaid trips in the last financial year.”