From dhols to Rath Yatra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned elaborate campaigns in Delhi’s slums and unauthorised colonies, which are considered an Aam Aadmi Party votebank, to “expose” the ruling party in Delhi.
On Sunday, Union minister Vijay Goel, a former member of Parliament (MP) from Chandni Chowk, held a ‘dhol andolan’ in Daya Basti in Inderlok (near Shastri Park in the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency) to highlight the “failure” of the AAP government in providing essential services to people living in slums.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari plans to start a rath yatra in all 70 assembly constituencies to inform people of the ruling party’s failure to deliver on the 70 promises it made in its 2015 election manifesto.
While addressing the crowd at Daya Basti, Goel said, “Kejriwal is misleading slum dwellers on electricity and water. Before Kejriwal came into the power, slum dwellers used to get water from tankers and didn’t have to pay for it. Now, due to this government, residents of slums are being forced to pay high electricity and water bills.
Hoping to make a dent in the AAP’s votebank — slums and unauthorised colonies were considered the Congress’ vote bank, which, in 2015, shifted en masse to AAP -- the BJP plans to step up its campaign in slums. With Delhi heading for a triangular fight, a split in slum votes, BJP members say, will help the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
{{/usCountry}}Hoping to make a dent in the AAP’s votebank — slums and unauthorised colonies were considered the Congress’ vote bank, which, in 2015, shifted en masse to AAP -- the BJP plans to step up its campaign in slums. With Delhi heading for a triangular fight, a split in slum votes, BJP members say, will help the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
{{/usCountry}}Tiwari is planning more night-stays in slums, which he started doing last year. “We will expose them (AAP). We are doing a reality check of all their 70 promises, of which the check of 40 is complete. The rest will be completed soon, and we plan to show them to people of Delhi,” Tiwari said.
The rath yatra will highlight the achievements of the Modi government and failures of the AAP government. “The specially designed rath will have LED screens, where we will show short video clips we have made to highlight the failure of this government to deliver on its promises,” Neelkant Bakshi, co-incharge of media, Delhi BJP, said.
Party members also said they are going to highlight how the AAP government has deprived lakhs of Delhi residents from benefiting from central government schemes such as Ayushman Bharat. “The government is stalling benefits extended by the Centre from reaching the people of Delhi. We will go to all the slums and tell people about it,” Goel said.
Dilip Pandey, senior AAP leader and the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from northeast Delhi, said, “The Delhi government, under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, is India’s most popular government. BJP-led civic bodies did nothing except corruption. Vijay Goel should ask the BJP leadership in the state to start fulfilling promises made before the MCD elections. The state BJP president (Manoj Tiwari) had promised they will get funds from the central government by bypassing Delhi’s government, and will make Delhi clean within three months. They cleaned funds of the civic bodies through corruption and nothing is brought by the leadership from the central government.”