Stepping up its attack on North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday claimed it has “clinching evidence” against her involvement in alleged irregularities in tendering process and reiterated its demand for her dismissal of from the post.
Waving a letter purportedly written by an officer at Press conference, AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey alleged, “No name is as big a synonym of scam, as the BJP, in the country... In the letter written by a senior officer to the commissioner, he had asked for an FIR to be registered against the North Mayor for interfering in the evaluation of technical bidding to help a company.”
The Mayor, however, refuted all the charge made by Pandey and accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led party of targeting her to divert attention when there are corruption allegations against Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain.
The senior AAP leader also reiterated its demand to “initiate a CBI enquiry against Agarwal”.
“The time for giving her resignation is over, now she should be dismissed by the BJP. We have this clinching evidence and her dismissal is the only way for the BJP to save its face,” said Pandey.
“Is it (letter) not sufficient enough for the BJP to dismiss her and initiate a CBI enquiryIJ BJP should take cognisance and initiate the enquiry, so that the truth comes out,” he said.
Pandey also read out portions of the letter, in which the senior officer has alleged that the mayor entered his room while the tender was in the middle of evaluation process, and later some of the employees of that company (one of the bidders) had entered the room of the Mayor.
Quoting from the letter, he also said “The intervention in the evaluation process of tender was improper, illegal, irregular and unjustified,”
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) has been ruled by the BJP since its inception in 2012.
Hours after Pandey's allegation, the Mayor also held a Press meet at the Delhi BJP headquarters and rubbished the allegations. She claimed, “She never indulged in any corruption and neither will allow anyone else in the NMC to do so”.
On the allegation of entering the room of the senior officer late last year, she claimed, “There was some sanitation activity that day at the Civic Centre, and there were a large number of people amassed around me, even some mediapersons were also there.”
“Was there a red-light bulb glowing on top of the room, which said the entry was restricted or did I broke into the room. The allegation of interference is all false and baseless,” she said.
A visibly upset Agarwal, also claimed that “posters bearing her image had been put up in various public places by the AAP.” “How can someone use my picture without taking my permissionIJ We will initiate defamation case against it (AAP),” she said.
Pandey also alleged that certain officials in the NMC’s advertising department were “transferred during the tenure of the previous mayor, which was brought back by her, after she became the mayor.” Agarwal denied the allegation.