AAP calls BJP slum outreach ‘poll stunt’; BJP says ‘AAP lost jhuggi vote bank’

The tussle comes after a weekend wherein BJP leaders stayed the night at across 1,000 points in jhuggis to interact with residents about problems

New Delhi

Arvind Kejriwal made the comments about BJP during the Mahila Adalat event. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday engaged in a war of words on seeking votes from residents of JJ clusters, with AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal calling the BJP’s outreach programme an “election stunt” and the BJP dismissing the comment saying “AAP has lost its jhuggi vote bank”.

The tussle comes after a weekend wherein BJP leaders stayed the night at across 1,000 points in jhuggis to interact with residents about problems they were facing as part of its outreach in the run-up to the 2025 state assembly polls.

Speaking at the Mahila Adalat programme at Thyagraj Stadium, Kejriwal said: “BJP leaders on Sunday went to Shakur Basti and distributed salwar-kameez, sarees, and shawls among jhuggis dwellers. Now, they will go to every jhuggi and distribute items. You should definitely take the items, I won’t stop you, accept whatever you want except for liquor, but don’t fall for their tricks, and do not vote for them.”

The AAP chief alleged that BJP leaders who were spending nights in slums will “return to demolish their homes after the elections.”

Chief minister Atishi, in a press conference at the party headquarters, said that during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Pusa Institute on Sunday, the BJP covered jhuggis near Ratnapuri Chowk with curtains. “During the G20 Summit as well, the BJP covered jhuggis with curtains... Wherever BJP leaders visit and spend the night, they return a few months later to demolish those very jhuggis,” she said.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Kejriwal and Atishi knew well that they “lost their last vote bank, the jhuggi dwellers.”

“They both know that AAP is going to badly lose the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections and so are trying to raise non-issues. Atishi is on a constitutional post and very well knows that Prime Minister of the country is a SPG protectee... guidelines state that 500-metre area around the places visited by the PM be sanitised and barricaded. The way AAP is raising frivolous issues every day is making it clear that their defeat is a foregone conclusion,” said Kapoor.