Reacting to BJP’s aggressive projection of its Chief Ministerial candidate Dr Harsh Vardhan as an able administrator, Congress on Tuesday described him as an ‘RSS nominee’ who will remain a ‘CM-in-waiting’. Questioning Vardhan’s administrative capability, the Congress-led Government said that the people of Delhi will never support a party ‘riddled with infighting’.
Questioning the BJP’s contention that Vardhan had played a key role in eradicating polio in Delhi, Delhi’s Revenue Minister Arvinder Singh lovely termed him as a ‘non-performer’ who could not even set up a ‘single hospital’ in Delhi when he was Health Minister from 1993 to 1998 under the BJP Government. “Before 1993 and after 1998, the number of hospitals in Delhi remained at 18, while 1998 to 2013 the count has increased to 39. He could not set up a single hospital in Delhi as Health Minister. The BJP has been talking about his contribution to polio eradication in Delhi. It was a Centrally-sponsored scheme,” said lovely at a media briefing along with his Cabinet colleagues Haroon Yusuf and Raj Kumar Chauhan.
Further, lovely claimed that the dropout rate of students in schools had gone up when Vardhan was given responsibility of education department and he did not contribute anything significant as a Minister in the BJP Government. “The dropout rate had increased after he was given charge of education. When he took care of health as Minister, the number of reported dengue cases was 10,000 and deaths stood at 460. Over 60 had died of dropsy during that period,” lovely added. Ridiculing BJP for its infighting over the Chief Ministerial candidature, he said a faction-ridden party cannot win the polls and claimed that Vardhan was anointed at the behest of RSS. Referring to BJP’s rule in Delhi, he asked why the party had to change Chief Ministers thrice in a span of five years.
The BJP Government between 1993 and 1998 saw three Chief Ministers namely, Madan lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, and Sushma Swaraj. “They do not have any leader now to match Sheila Dikshit’s stature. We will have to see whether they change the Chief Ministerial candidate yet again,” said Delhi’s Food and Supply Minister Haroon Yusuf. Following his anointment as BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate, Vardhan has been attacking the Congress Government on a range of issues, including price rise, law and order and allegations of corruption.