Manish Sisodia slams media for defeat in bypoll

New Delhi: A day after the Aam Aadmi Party received a humiliating defeat in the bypoll on the Rajouri Garden seat, a “visibly upset” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia threatened to boycott “more” media channels during a press conference and called them “conspiracy makers.”

He was speaking in the wake of the AAP losing the Delhi bypoll in Rajouri Garden in which the deposit of the ruling party’s candidate itself was lost.

Adopting a harsh tone, Mr Sisodia said that whoever crosses the “line”  will be banned by the AAP. The minister further went on to blame the media and said that fraud people are planted by them to create ruckus during press conferences and their sole aim is to disrupt the event — they are told when to speak and when not to speak. Mr Sisodia then went on to bring Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress in the mix to differentiate the AAP from the others and said, “hungama karane ke lie BJP, Congress hai.”

Earlier in the day, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that losing the Rajouri Garden seat in the bypoll will have no impact on party’s chances in the upcoming MCD Polls. While talking to the media, he said people were angry that Jarnail Singh left to contest in Punjab and that is why they voted in anger. The BJP-SAD candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa won the Rajouri Garden seat by 14,652 votes.

BJP President Amit Shah looked happy with the result and posted a tweet saying, “We will offer sweets after MCD polls.”

However, not all the party members may agree with the Delhi CM. According to a senior party official, “Our internal party survey showed our candidate was losing and we were prepared for that. What has got senior party functionaries worried is that Harjeet Singh lost his deposit and managed to poll only 13 per cent votes. At a time when the municipal elections are so close, it is not a good sign for the party. Losing a seat is understandable, but losing so much support is not.”

Mr Sisodia said that the CVC report that has shown a drastic reduction in the number of corruption complaints against the Delhi government indicates that the “level of satisfaction” with the AAP has risen among the people, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said today.

He said it was mainly due to zero tolerance against corruption at the top echelons of the government as part of which even ministers have been “shown the door” in the last two years. “Our party had come riding on the plank of anti- corruption. There is zero tolerance against corruption. The CVC report reflects the truth. There has been a dramatic reduction in the number of complaints of around 81 per cent between 2015 and 2016. It shows the level of satisfaction among people,” Mr Sisodia said.

The number of complaints against those under government of National Capital Territory of Delhi has declined with a total of 969 received last year as against 5,139 in 2015, the CVC has said in its annual report tabled in the Parliament recently.

Projecting it as an “achievement” of the AAP government, Mr Sisodia contrasted the figures with that of the Centre where, the report says, complaints have gone up by 67 per cent over the previous year.