‘Kejriwal vs Who?’: AAP targets BJP over lack of CM face for Delhi polls

Kejriwal resigned as Delhi CM in September 2024, saying he will sit on the CM’s chair only after the people re-elect him

New Delhi

Arvind Kejriwal addresses a press conference on Thursday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday launched “Kejriwal vs Who in the BJP?” campaign in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections, questioning the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) lack of a chief ministerial face. Several hoardings were put up across the city with a picture of Kejriwal alongside a question mark, with the words “Who will be Delhi’s CM”.

“The BJP is like a ‘baaraat’ (wedding procession) without a groom and it must tell the people of Delhi who its ‘groom’ is. We have already declared Arvind Kejriwal as our CM face, and the BJP should do the same so that Delhi’s citizens can compare and decide who is better suited. Over the past 10 years, Arvind Kejriwal has earned a special place among the people of Delhi and the country through his politics of work. A majority of Delhi’s residents consider him the best chief minister,” AAP MP Sanjay Singh said.

The BJP hit back at the AAP’s campaign, with its senior leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri alleging Kejriwal failed to provide “clean water, good roads, check pollution, good health care, and even the basic amenities to the people of Delhi” and the people will “vote against Kejriwal”.

The BJP contested the 2020 assembly election without announcing a CM face and it lost the election, winning only 8 of the 70 seats. In 2015, the BJP named Kiran Bedi its CM face, but the move did not pan out as expected.

“Our chief ministerial face is Arvind Kejriwal; now the ‘Gali Galauch Party’ (BJP) should also declare who its CM face is,” AAP said in a statement.

The AAP’s campaign is centred on Arvind Kejriwal even though he is not the sitting CM. Kejriwal resigned as Delhi CM in September 2024, upon his release from jail in the Delhi excise case, saying he will sit in the CM’s chair only after the people re-elect him.