The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday issued “chargesheets” against 10 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators, accusing them of poor performance and alleging strong anti-incumbency in their constituencies ahead of the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
Vijender Gupta, the Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly and head of the BJP’s chargesheet committee, said that the AAP had dropped 18 of its sitting MLAs in its second list of candidates announced on Monday. He also accused two other AAP MLAs, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla, of abandoning their constituencies for “safer” options.
“We will issue chargesheets highlighting the failures and misdeeds of the AAP government and its MLAs. These chargesheets will be distributed to voters in their constituencies,” Gupta said at a press conference.
The BJP’s chargesheets targeted MLAs from the constituencies of Madipur, Burari, Model Town, Mundka, Kalkaji, Gokulpur, Malviya Nagar, R.K. Puram, Moti Nagar, and Narela. The chargesheets bore the tagline, “Delhi government hui kangal, AAP MLA Malamaal, Sheesh Mahal mein Kejriwal,” which claims that while AAP MLAs became wealthy, the Delhi government became financially poor, and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal built a “palace.”
Gupta argued that the AAP had to change its sitting MLAs because they could not face their constituencies due to non-performance. He also criticised Sisodia, calling his claim of being the “father of revolution in education” a “falsehood” and accused him of deserting his Patparganj seat for the Jangpura seat to avoid accountability.
The AAP, which has announced 31 candidates so far, did not re-nominate any of its current MLAs, Gupta claimed, asserting that the party had lost the confidence of the people and was unable to respond to voters’ concerns.