In order to contain the influence of Aam Aadmi Party and the Arvind Kejriwal Government, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will start addressing Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the national Capital.
Dikshit would address Kamla Nagar RWA under the banner of North Delhi RWAs, conglomerate of over 100 RWAs on April 26. The RWAs were the backbone of her governance through her flagship Bhagidari programme.
The former CM enjoys immense clout of over 100 RWAs across the city as huge funds were provided during her 15 years’ tenure for development in their colonies/areas. This would be the third such Bhagidari meeting of Dikshit in the past two months in Delhi. She had earlier addressed a meeting of RWAs in Ashok Vihar and Outer Delhi.
The entire concept of giving funds to RWAs under Bhagidari project has been stopped by the Kejriwal Government after he came to power on February 14 this year. The Bhagidari concept is non-existent these days and it was strongly disliked by the AAP Government. At the same time, her movement may impact on the functioning of Delhi Congress. It is noted that several RWAs have written to AAP Government regarding Bhagidari, but have not been able to elicit response from the city administration.
Political pundits say Dikshit was making a pitch to become active in the city politics once again by addressing the RWAs meeting on April 26 of this month. “Dikshit was the architect of the Bhagidari concept in Delhi. This Delhi Government is talking about mohalla sabhas that seem to be improvised version of Bhagidari,” said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
According to him, during the previous Congress regime, they used to provide development-related suggestions and used to spend funds through Bhagidari cell or divisional commissioner office. “Strangely, Arvind Kejriwal feels otherwise,” he said.
A Congress leader, who is known to be close to Sheila Dikshit, said that the meeting would have a huge impact on the functioning of the Pradesh Congress.