New Delhi: Delhi BJP Manoj Tiwari on Monday alleged that both Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress are power-hungry and are slowly and silently working to form a coalition.
In a press conference, Mr Tiwari said be it the issue of leak to the media or Arvind Kejriwal joining the swearing in ceremony of the Karnataka government, it all indicates a coalition. He also pointed out that the rhetoric of AAP over full statehood of Delhi is an effort of the Kejriwal government to divert public attention from its corrupt administration, poor governance, failure on water and electricity supply, and deterioration of government hospitals.
According to Mr Tiwari, the survey leak to a section of media is extremely strange as it says that the people of Delhi want to elect Congress for the Lok Sabha but at the local level they are satisfied with the Kejriwal government.
“The political history of the country has already seen that whenever people elect a regional party in a Vidhan Sabha election, they support it in the next few elections as well. In the 2015 Assembly election, people of Delhi elected Aam Aadmi Party in a triangular contest. However, in a short span, they lost faith in AAP and in the 2017 municipal election the people again reposed faith in BJP like in the 2014 parliamentary election,” said Mr Tiwari.
He claimed that now both Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are desperate for power. This desperation and frustration is compelling them to repeat the unprincipled coalition, which they first formed in 2013.
The people of Delhi will not accept this coalition, he added. Former Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay clarified that the demand for full statehood was not part of the BJP manifesto for the civic polls held last year.
In a separate press conference, the Lok Sabha member from New Delhi, Meenakshi Lekhi, said: “Whatever we said in the past has been negated and the scenario has changed after the Supreme Court’s judgment that the national capital cannot be given the status of a full state.”
Reacting to Mr Kejriwal’s demand for full statehood to Delhi, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta termed it as political brinkmanship.
“If he were serious about the issue he should have raised it in the Parliament through his MPs, which is the right forum for it,” said Mr Gupta.
