With 2 Kejriwal Town Halls, AAP wraps up its MCD push

BJP termed it a violation of the Model Code of Conduct and demanded the state election commission to take legal action against the Delhi Chief Minister.

Delhi chief minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal held two separate public meetings on Friday, the last day of campaigning for the December 4 municipal elections, even as party legislators held roadshows along with party candidates at nearly 500 different locations.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia with yoga trainers during a function at the Constitution Club in New Delhi, on Friday. (Sanchit Khanna/ HT Photo)

Kejriwal held the first meetging with Yoga trainers who were hired by the government under its ‘Dilli ki Yogshala’ scheme at the Constitution Club in New Delhi and gave them salary cheques from funds generated through a crowd funding campaign that the Delhi CM had kicked off earlier this month. A total of 250 Yoga trainers were given the salaries through donations collected from 50 people.

The BJP, however, termed it a violation of the Model Code of Conduct and demanded the state election commission to take legal action against Kejriwal. Ashish Sood, convener of Delhi BJP Municipal Corporation Election Committee, said the distribution of cheques was not stopped despite orders by the election commission. “The Aam Aadmi Party is committing this heinous act of money distribution among the voters in Delhi fearing the increasing support base of the BJP. This is a violation of the election code of conduct,” Sood said at a press conference.

The state election commission has initiated a probe in the matter. Deputy secretary of state election commission PK Goel, in a communication on Friday, has asked the district election officer verify the facts related the programme, take immediate action and submit an action taken report.

The chief minister also held a Town Hall meeting with the traders in North Delhi’s Britannia Chowk area where he promised freedom from Inspector Raj, ease of doing business and international standards market infra if the AAP is voted to power in the MCD.

Speaking with Yoga trainers in the first Town Hall meeting, Kejriwal said, “I was very sad when Delhi LG banned free yoga classes, but we were determined that we will not let Yoga classes stop, whether money comes from the government or not. Today, the people of Delhi handed over salaries to all the yoga trainers. I will not let any project in Delhi stop. We are not doing this for votes, but for the people of Delhi. Vote for whosoever you want, your health is my responsibility,” Kejriwal said, and added that the payment of salaries was not part of the electioneering for the MCD polls.

Kejriwal said that the AAP government wants to expand the Yoga programme. “Right now, we are teaching Yoga to 17,000 people. My target is to get 2 million people in Delhi to do Yoga. I want Yoga teachers to start taking more classes, and not worry about money because we have got several donors, and more donors will come,” Kejriwal said at the event.

Officials in the LG office said the statement about LG stopping the Yoga classes were totally false and deliberately misleading. They said that the decision to discontinue the Yogashala programme in its present form was taken by the Board of Governors (BoG) of the fully autonomous, Delhi Pharmaceutical Science & Research University (DPSRU).

“The LG did not discontinue the Yogshala programme and upon being asked to endorse a patently illegal proposal put up by the deputy CM and CM, he upheld the statutory position that clearly bars anyone including the LG to infringe upon the reasonable decision of an autonomous institution,” said officials.

Kejriwal, however, added that the programme was stopped despite several people suffering from post-Covid symptoms benefited from the programme. “So, it was wrong to stop the free Yoga classes for Delhi citizens at the time. But the power structure in Delhi is such that the LG has the power to shut whatever he wants,” he said.

Ruchita, another instructor, who holds Yoga classes in a village in Najafgarh, said that people were very disappointed when the classes were stopped because they were benefiting from the exercises.

In his meeting with the traders, Kejriwal promised to resolve all outstanding issues by removing corruption in the civic body. “We will simplify all norms and make life easier for traders. We will end corruption in MCD in 3-4 months and rid traders from Inspector Raj. After we come to the MCD, we will either end or digitise licence fee system, will try our best to de-seal shops, simplify building by-laws and introduce single-window system. We will transform the markets on the lines of those in Paris, Tokyo, New York and Washington. We will ensure that Delhi’s markets stand out as the pride of the country,” said Kejriwal in the meeting.

The AAP chief also sought suggestions from traders on the performance of his government as well as that of the MCD.

“If there’s an AAP MLA and councillor in your area, I will at least have the power to instruct them to cooperate and solve your problem; BJP people don’t listen to us,” Kejriwal said.

Polling for the elections to the MCD will take place on December 4 and votes will be counted on December 7.

Schools in Delhi will remain closed on Saturday, a day ahead of voting for the MCD election on Sunday, according to a notice issued by the Directorate of Education’s (DoE) School Branch on Friday. It added that schools will remain open on December 10.