Hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its manifesto for the Delhi polls, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday cautioned the voters to vote wisely as a victory for the BJP will translate into an end to the freebies being offered by the ruling AAP government. Noting that the saffron party has not said anything on free water, free electricity and free bus rides, Kejriwal said that all these services will be stopped if the BJP became came to power. “BJP manifesto has proved that if you vote for it, then your free electricity, free water and free bus rides will be stopped. Think and vote,” Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet.
भाजपा के मैनिफ़ेस्टो से साबित हो गया कि अगर आपने उनको वोट दिया तो आपकी फ़्री बिजली, फ़्री पानी और फ़्री बस यात्रा बंद हो जाएँगे। सोच कर वोट देना।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 31, 2020
AAP MP Sanjay Singh called the BJP’s ‘Sankalp Patra’ as a ‘jumla patra’. He claimed that the saffron party has clearly stated in its manifesto that it wants to stop all the programmes run by the Arvind Kejriwal government. Singh said that the BJP wants to stop free water, free power and free rides to women in the national capital. “This is not a sankalp patra, this is a barbaadi patra for the people of Delhi,” Singh said in a press conference.
The remarks came immediately after the saffron party released its manifesto for the assembly election. The BJP, while promising other things, has skipped mention of the free services run by the current government under Arvind Kejriwal. The AAP has been running free water and free power programmes for the last five years, and has promised to continue them in the future as well.
Just months before the polls, the Delhi government announced free bus rides for the women of Delhi. Recently, Arvind Kejriwal announced that bus services will be free for students as well if his government is voted back to power. Delhi will go to polls on February 8 and the results will be declared on February 11.
