FINE OVER ‘I LOVE KEJRIWAL’ POSTER CHALLENGED
AAP chief says BJP is unpopular because it doesn’t have a chief ministerial face in Delhi
NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has engaged as many as 200 of its parliamentarians from across the country, including 70 cabinet ministers and 11 chief ministers, in its campaign in the run up to the February 8 assembly polls in Delhi. All this, he said, is because the saffron party does not have a suitable chief minister candidate.
“The BJP does not have a chief ministerial face against Arvind Kejriwal. They are bringing 200 MPS, 70 ministers and 11 chief ministers because the people of Delhi did not support them. So, now, they are bringing outsiders,” said Kejriwal at a road show in Gokulpur locality.
“They are coming to defeat your son Kejriwal. They are coming to insult all of us. They will come and say your schools are in bad condition, your mohalla clinics are in bad shape…this fight is between the two crore people of Delhi and 200 BJP MPS. When they come, recount all the works done in the last five years and send them back to their states. Do not let them insult Delhi,” he said.
Many Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters participated in road shows led by the Kejriwal in northeast Delhi’s Karawal Nagar, and south Delhi’s Mehrauli and Chhatarpur assembly constituencies on Tuesday. He later addressed a public gathering in Delhi Cantonment.
On Tuesday, music composer and artiste Vishal Dadlani also campaigned for the AAP in Madipur, Moti Nagar and Tilak Nagar localities. Dadlani is one of the “star campaigners” of the party, and this was his first public
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They are coming to defeat your son Kejriwal. They are coming to insult all of us. They will come and say your schools are in bad condition, your mohalla clinics are in bad shape… When they come, recount all the works done and send them back to their states.
ARVIND KEJRIWAL, Delhi CM and AAP national convener
appearance in Delhi in the party’s ongoing poll campaign.
This is the first in recent times that the BJP is contesting a state election without a chief ministerial candidate.
In the 2015 Delhi state elections, BJP had fielded former IPS officer Kiran Bedi from its stronghold of Krishna Nagar and had named her as its chief ministerial candidate. She lost to AAP’S SK Bagga by 2,277 votes.
In 2013, current Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had contested from the same seat and won by 43,150 votes. However, the BJP had failed to win a majority in the Assembly then and led to the formation of a Congress-aap government.
Earlier, BJP leaders had told HT that they would be banking on the work done by the Narendra Modi-led central government to campaign for them in the Delhi elections. Also, the party had named the prime minister, Union home minister, parliamentarians Delhi’s Gautam Gambhir, Uttar Pradesh’s Hema Malini and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath as its star campaigners.
During the road shows on Tuesday, Kejriwal waved at people from an open-roof vehicle, flanked by supporters on both sides who were waving flags of the AAP and brooms – the party’s election symbol.
Loudspeakers installed in vehicles which were part of the road shows played the party’s campaign song and highlighted the Delhi government’s achievements in the last five years on several fronts ranging from schools and hospitals to water supply and sewer lines.