Politics heats up as Gujarat BJP team visits facilities in Delhi

After storming to power in Punjab this April, Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying to build a base in Gujarat with an eye on wresting power from the BJP, which has ruled the state for 24 years since 1998.

Ahead of Gujarat assembly elections, scheduled for the end of the year, a 17-member delegation from Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in Delhi on a two-day visit to examine the reality of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi model of governance.

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena (right) on Tuesday administered the oath of office to justice Satish Chandra Sharma as the chief justice of Delhi high court in a ceremony at Raj Niwas. (HT Photo)

After storming to power in Punjab this April, Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying to build a base in Gujarat with an eye on wresting power from the BJP, which has ruled the state for 24 years since 1998. Taking a dig at their rival party, the AAP leaders said the Gujarat BJP team is in the national capital to learn “how people there can also be provided with good schools and hospitals”.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and leader of opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri welcomed the delegation at Delhi BJP headquarters and said the AAP government’s Delhi model will be exposed by them.

The delegation visited a few schools on Tuesday and will visit more on Wednesday. It will hold a press conference on Wednesday evening to reveal its findings with evidence, said party leaders, while refusing to share details of schools they visited on Tuesday.

AAP leaders led by Atishi, held a press conference to address the visit and said, “Taking cue from the Kejriwal model (of governance), opposition leaders too have started talking about ground level issues faced by the common man. I will personally show them whichever school and hospital they want to visit and guide them through the transformation story. Considering the dilapidated condition of schools and hospitals in Gujarat, it seems pertinent for the delegation to be learning from Delhi.”

“Gujarat currently lacks 19,000 classrooms and over 6,000 schools have shut in the past two years. Gujarat’s government schools are in ruins; their walls are shattered, toilets are filthy and students are scared to come to school. Perhaps, that is why the BJP delegation has felt the need to come to Delhi,” Atishi said.

Atishi said an AAP delegation will visit Gujarat next week. “We expect them (Gujarat BJP) to host us similarly when we visit their schools and hospitals next week,” she said.

Gupta said whenever someone comes from abroad to see Delhi schools, Kejriwal shows them a couple of select buildings and claim that they have “revolutionised the education and health sectors”.

“It is all fake. The fact is that there is a shortage of about 23,000 teachers in these schools. There are no principals or vice principals in 80% schools while 70% schools don’t have sciences as a subject. Not only that, to ensure better results in Class 10 and 12, children are being failed in class 9 and 11,” the BJP leader alleged, while challenging deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia to a debate.

.