Politics heats up as Guj BJP team visits facilities in Delhi

HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Ahead of Gujarat assembly elections, scheduled for the end of 2022, a 17-member delegation from Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in Delhi on a two-day visit to examine the reality of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi model of governance.

After storming to power in Punjab this April, Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying to build a base in Gujarat with an eye on wresting power from the BJP, which has ruled the state for 24 years since 1998. Taking a dig at their rival party, the AAP leaders said the Gujarat BJP team is in the national capital to learn “how people there can also be provided with good schools and hospitals”.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and leader of opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri welcomed the delegation at Delhi BJP headquarters and said the AAP government’s Delhi model will be exposed by them.

The delegation visited a few schools on Tuesday and will visit more on Wednesday. It will hold a press conference on Wednesday evening to reveal its findings with evidence, said party leaders, while refusing to share details of schools they visited on Tuesday.

Yagnesh Dave, Gujarat BJP media coordinator, said the delegation will visit more schools and hospitals and make videos of the inspection public.

“We will expose the fake Kejriwal model of governance,” said Dave. The Gujarat delegation consists of three former ministers and three former MLAS besides other Gujarat BJP functionaries

AAP leaders led by Atishi, held a press conference to address the visit and said, “Taking cue from the Kejriwal model (of governance), opposition leaders too have started talking about ground level issues faced by the common man. I will personally show them whichever school and hospital they want to visit and guide them through the transformation story. Considering the dilapidated condition of schools and hospitals in Gujarat, it seems pertinent for the delegation to be learning from Delhi.”

“Gujarat currently lacks 19,000 classrooms and over 6,000 schools have shut in the past two years. Gujarat’s government schools are in ruins; their walls are shattered, toilets are filthy and students are scared to come to school. Perhaps, that is why the BJP delegation has felt the need to come to Delhi,” Atishi said.

Atishi said an AAP delegation will visit Gujarat next week. “We expect them (Gujarat BJP) to host us similarly when we visit their schools and hospitals next week,” she said.

I will personally show them whichever school and hospital they want to visit and guide them. AAP MLA