The BJP on Sunday alleged that the AAP government in the capital failed to fulfill all of its key poll promises and "destroyed" the city ahead of the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, senior party leader and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri listed 10 promises, including cleaning the Yamuna and making Delhi pollution-free, that AAP made ahead of the 2020 polls but did not fulfill. Targeting AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Puri said the AAP convener only "spreads lies" and did not make any effort to fulfill the promises his party made to voters.
“Kejriwal came into politics saying that he would not accept big government bungalows and only travel in his Wagon R but built a 'sheesh mahal' for himself to live a luxurious life during his stint as Delhi chief minister, the BJP leader charged. AAP "destroyed" Delhi,” he added.
Puri also targeted the AAP government in Punjab, saying the party had promised to end the menace of drugs in the border state but instead, the drug lords there got more "energy". "From morning to evening, they (AAP) are only running advertisements (on TV channels). You have the right (to run advertisements) since you are paying for them. I am happy that TV channel owners are earning revenue by (running advertisements) about this 'nasha-mukt' leadership of Punjab," he said.
The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to polls on February 5 and votes will be counted on February 8. In the 2015 and 2020 Delhi Assembly polls, AAP won 67 and 62 seats, respectively. The BJP won three seats in 2015 and eight in 2020, while the Congress drew a blank.
Puri slammed Kejriwal over his claim that the BJP will demolish all slums in Delhi if it is voted to power in the upcoming assembly elections, saying the AAP leader "talks nonsense". "When Kejriwal started his political journey, some of us were present at Ramlila Maidan. We actually felt that it is going to be a big movement against corruption. We were also impressed by his personality," he said.
But, Kejriwal's actual "planning" gradually started "emerging", he said, adding, "He completely destroyed Delhi."
The BJP leader said the AAP national convenor said his government will provide world class education to students in Delhi and promised to establish 500 schools in the city. "Later, they moved from counting the number of schools to be established to the number of classrooms to be constructed and claimed that they have constructed 20,000 classrooms." he said.
Puri claimed that a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report, meanwhile, said that the AAP government could construct just 4,027 classrooms and it put the construction of toilets in schools also in the list. "They kept hiding this report for two-and-a-half years," he said.
While AAP talks about providing world class education in Delhi, more than two lakh children are deprived of education in the national capital, he charged.
"They did not hire any new teacher or regular teacher over the past 10 years. There are 43,000 permanent teachers and 13,000 guest teachers in schools of Delhi, while they need 62,000 teachers. There is a shortfall of 6000 teachers," he added.
