Lok Sabha elections 2019: BJP says statehood for Delhi not possible under a ‘CM like Kejriwal’

To counter the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) campaign on full statehood, Union minister and senior Delhi BJP leader Vijay Goel on Wednesday burnt the manifesto and a symbolic tower of the “failed” promises of the ruling party in Delhi.

Goel said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has diluted the issue of full statehood with his “anarchist” behaviour.

The AAP has been targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not fulfilling its promise of giving full statehood to Delhi. Goel asserted that the BJP is in favour of full statehood. “But it is not possible if the city has a CM like Kejriwal, who is an anarchist. He would misuse the powers just like he is doing today. He has diluted the issue of full statehood. The statehood would benefit when there is good coordination between the state government and the Centre,” said Goel, who was joined by his supporters.

The former Delhi BJP chief said all the three former chief ministers—late Sahib Singh Verma, late Madan Lal Khurana and Sheila Dikshit—have carried out massive development work in the city without any problem. “While there have been demands for full statehood earlier, all the previous CMs ensured a good state-centre relationship for the development of the city. But Kejriwal has failed on all fronts,” said Goel, who has been attacking the AAP government by highlighting its failure through his ‘Dhol’ campaign in the city.

To scale up the campaign against AAP, senior BJP leader JS Pawaiya, who is co-incharge of elections in Delhi, has called a special meeting of state executive members on Thursday. “We have called a meeting to plan the strategy for the election campaign. Post-Holi, our war room will be operational and we will step up the campaign,” said Pawaiya.

He added, “The issue in this election is going to be about national security and who we want to see as the prime minister of the country and not what Kejriwal is saying. He (Kejriwal) wants to fight the Lok Sabha elections at the MCD (municipal corporation) level. But we want to talk about the work done by the Modi government for the welfare of the people. Ours is going to be a positive campaign.”