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The AAP has caused a lot of pain to the people in Delhi: Manoj Tiwari
Actor, singer, and politician Manoj Tiwari, two-term MP from North East Delhi, is contesting for the third time. He highlights his achievements and campaign strategy in an interview.
Actor, singer and politician --- Manoj Tiwari is not new to electoral politics. He first took the plunge in 2009, when he contested against Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur on a Samajwadi Party ticket. A battle that he lost. But eventually he came to Delhi and was made the president of the city unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 2014, the party fielded him from the North East Delhi constituency — a seat which has a concentration of working class neighbourhoods and several unauthorised colonies and is also characterised by a sizeable population of the people from Poorvanchal, a region that Tiwari calls home and where he has earned the status of a superstar with his work in the Bhojpuri cinema. In fact, it is Delhi which first sent him to the Parliament. He represented the North East Delhi seat in 2014, and returned as an MP from the same seat in 2019. This time too, Tiwari is contesting from the seat. He spoke to HT’s Alok KN Mishra and Karn Pratap Singh for an interview, discussing his campaign and plans for the area. Edited excepts:
You are the two-term MP from North East Delhi. You are contesting for the third time. What’s different? Is there any anti-incumbency? How is the public responding to your campaign?
People from of my constituency are organising public meetings on their own to support me. Ever since the party has announced my candidature on March 2, I have held 350 public meetings, 15 public meetings on average per day. Around 300 such meetings have been organised by the people themselves. Before the Congress named Kanhaiya Kumar as its candidate from North East Delhi against me people used to wonder who will be my competitor. But, ever since his name has been announced, the people are determined to re-elect me. I am getting a lot of love from the people.
You are the sitting MP here, what problems do you feel are plaguing the area. How you have worked to fix them over all these years?
People raise the issue of poor internal roads, water logging in parts of the constituency, dirty water bring supplied to households…..all works that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has not done. But only a handful of people, 10 out of 100 people, are raising these issues. I have to explain to them that issues all these issues are to be addressed by the Delhi government. And the people understand when I explain it to them. The people say that PM Narendra Modi has done excellent work and they are going to re-elect him. The AAP has caused a lot of pain to the people of Delhi. I tell the people that the central government has linked North East Delhi with Metro network, the work on Metro Phase IV from Maujpur to Mukundpur is going on, National Highway 709B (Delhi-Saharanpur) is being constructed, central schools have been opened… The people of Delhi did not give the responsibility of fixing issues of internal roads, dirty water supply, overflowing drains….[to the BJP in 2020 assembly polls]
So, by talking about such local issues, you are also campaigning for the 2025 Delhi assembly elections?
That is happening by default because the AAP government has not done any work. I tell people that the assembly elections will take place after six months, and if the people elect us in Delhi government then we will fix everything. We tell the people that they have kept the BJP out of power in Delhi assembly for the last 26 years. 2024 to 2029 will be a golden time for Delhi.
This time, the BJP dropped six of the sitting MPs. Only your were repeated. What worked in your favour?
I cannot answer this question. I want to thank PM Narendra Modi and the central leadership of the BJP for giving me the opportunity. But definitely, the responsibility is bigger this time. We have to win all seven seats of Delhi once again.
You campaigned for the BJP in various states in 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well. What difference do you see on the ground this time as compared to 2019?
For the ongoing elections, I have campaigned in six states — UP, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Assam, Maharashtra and West Bengal — even as I am contesting from North East Delhi. The wave in favour of PM Narendra Modi is stronger in 2024 as compared to 2019. In West Bengal, the love and affection for Modi is very strong and there is a strong anti-incumbency against the Trinamool Congress [government] and Mamata Banerjee [government]. The BJP may win 28-30 seats in West Bengal. In Odisha and all other states where I campaigned, I saw a strong wave in favour of PM Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress-AAP alliance has fielded Kanhaiya Kumar. He is young and belongs from the Purvanchali community just like you. How do you gauge the challenge?
It is a disrespect to the Purvanchli community (people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh) to call Kanhaiya Kumar a Purvanchali. A person who backed divisive slogans, who called the Indian Army rapists, who supported the terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament should not be linked with Purvanchali community. Bihar has already rejected him in 2019. He contested from Begusarai and even the CPI cadre did not vote for him. It is indisputable that he is notorious and is known for all the wrong reasons. Even the workers of the AAP and the Congress have distance themselves from their parties. Sunita Kejriwal [wife of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal] getting a picture clicked with Kanhaiya Kumar has hit the AAP badly, and it is clear that the AAP stands with the divisive forces in the country. The Delhi Congress president [Arvind Singh] resigned over the party fielding Kanhaiya Kumar. A debate is going on in the country over who is fighting to strengthen the country and who is fighting to weaken the country. The INDI alliance is trying to weaken the country.
The opposition parties have accused you of ignoring the constituency and not doing any work in the area. How do you react to that?
Projects worth ₹14,600 crore have been taken up in my area in the last 10 years. I got ₹61 crore sanctioned in 2014, during President’s rule for the competition of the Signature Bridge. Seelampur-Shastri Park flyover which fixed the traffic mess in the area, National Highway 709B, which passes through North East Delhi is being constructed, the area has been connected with the Metro network up to Shiv Vihar, a work that entailed investment of ₹3,200 crore, the work on Metro Phase IV from Maujpur to Mukundpur is going on, two central schools have been opened, the Yamuna riverfront development work is also going and the work on the construction of a double-decker flyover is being done in Wazirabad.
We have redeveloped four parks that were encroached by the land mafia after getting them free from encroachment. In the next one year, the entire area will be transformed. A lot of work is in progress and will soon be completed. I am getting a lot of love and blessings from the people of North East Delhi, people want to vote to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term.
In 2019, it was triangular contest between the BJP, the AAP and the Congress. This time the AAP and the Congress have formed a pre-poll alliance. Do you think, it could be a tougher challenge?
We will win by a bigger margin than 2019. The AAP-Congress alliance is a reactionary tie up and it has got negative reaction. The workers of both the AAP and the Congress are feeling cheated. They were once arch-rivals. In fact, the AAP came into politics abusing the Congress, levelling allegations against the Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi. Now, after forging an alliance, both of them have lost credibility among the party workers as well as the people.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested just weeks ahead of the beginning of the elections. The AAP has made it [the arrest] an election issue. Will it play a role in the elections?
Even the AAP leaders do not have any sympathy [with Kejriwal]. The AAP announced that they will not celebrate Holi, but many party leaders celebrated the festival. There is no sympathy for Arvind Kejriwal because he has been arrested in a case of corruption. He claims to be a son of Delhi, but [his government] has not released the old-age pension of senior citizens. In 2011, Kejriwal was going to be arrested in a case. When police arrived to arrest him, over 50,000 people gathered. It forced the police to return without arresting him. When the same Kejriwal was arrested in March, people did not turn up to protest his arrest. Had there been any sympathy in favour of Kejriwal, the AAP would not have formed an alliance with Congress. There is no sympathy for Arvind Kejriwal, there is only anger against him.
