'Most pollution boards across the country have unused funds. There is practically no reason why pollution should not be a political priority.'
As leaders in both the BJP and Congress concede, neither has within their parties a leader to match Arvind Kejriwal's charisma in Delhi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released the first part of its manifesto for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections, promising Rs 2,500 monthly aid for women, LPG cylinders at Rs 500, and Rs 2,500 pension for senior citizens. BJP president JP Nadda also assured that all existing public welfare schemes in Delhi will continue if the party is voted to power. The manifesto also includes a promise to implement the 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme in Delhi, providing additional health cover of Rs 5 lakh.
In a video statement, the Congress parliamentary party chief also asserted this Lok Sabha election is being fought on issues such as unemployment, inflation and attack on constitutional institutions.
Modi asserted that his party will leave no stone unturned for the city's all-round development and making the lives of its residents better.
The central leadership will decide on who it will be, BJP's Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva said.
The BJP coined a new word for AAP, 'Aapda (crisis)', which Modi repeated constantly during the election campaign to show how Delhi residents's lives had become miserable under AAP's 11-year rule.
Voting for the Delhi Assembly elections began on Wednesday, with prominent leaders like President Droupadi Murmu, Union ministers S Jaishankar and Hardeep Singh Puri, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi casting their ballots early in the day. Other notable figures who participated in the electoral process included Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, and Delhi Chief Electoral Officer R Alice Vaz. The election is a triangular contest between the ruling AAP, BJP, and Congress, with the AAP aiming for a third consecutive term. Polling is underway at 13,766 stations across Delhi's 70 assembly constituencies to decide the fate of 699 candidates. The results will be announced on February 8.
Hailing the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi assembly polls victory as 'historic', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a stinging attack on the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, saying the country needs a serious political transformation and not politics of 'dhoort-ta (deceit) and moorkhta (foolishness)'.
The BJP and Congress have called out the 'Delhi model' as a hoax, built on sustained propaganda when the ground reality is different.
Many were so disillusioned with AAP that they left it in droves. A 10% drop in AAP's vote share is a pointer to that. To assume that if AAP had teamed up with the Congress, the Congress' 6.3% vote share would have helped AAP retain control of Delhi is erroneous, argues Sudhir Bisht.
'Till the BJP does not understand Kejriwal they cannot win Delhi.'
What India needs more than one simultaneous election is better governance both at the central and state level. Yes, we need reforms, but our priority should be to make elections less expensive, make it more democratic, do away with freebies which are actually bribes before elections, allow only those who are educated to contest, and bring in a bill to make it impossible for criminals to contest, advocates Ramesh Menon.
The Delhi battlefield may not be a cakewalk for the Rhodes Scholar.
Delhi Finance Minister Atishi on Monday announced the 'Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana' for the 2024-25 fiscal, under which Rs 1,000 will be given monthly to women aged above 18 from the fiscal year 2024-25.
The BJP, whose campaign was focussed more on issues related to nationalism and Shaheen Bagh, failed to find support among voters.
'We wanted to come out with accurate figure rather than speculating. This is not uncommon and we are not late
If Kejriwal is arrested, it will take very little for Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to summon a meeting of the assembly, direct it to elect a new leader of the House, and, if it doesn't, dissolve it and impose President's Rule, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
The electioneering potboiler for Delhi polls got synced with technology as contestants, including chief ministerial candidates of Aam Aadmi Party, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to voters by responding to their queries via 'video selfies'.
Queries like this, which run into about 2,500 every day, are raining at the helpline centre set up for the first time by the Election Commission in the poll-bound national capital."The centre has been receiving 2,000-2,500 calls daily," says Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Satbir Sailas Bedi. Set up under the direct supervision of Joint Chief Electoral Officer Uday Bakshi, it has different lines with a common number 011-47617500.
No immediate reaction was available from the Aam Aadmi Party on the BJP's allegation.
'Delhi voters have liked the politics of performance over noisy rhetoric and empty promises,' points out Vijaya Pushkarna.
'Kejriwal took political steps and micro level care at every level not to allow the consolidation of Hindu votes behind the BJP,' observes Sheela Bhatt, the distinguished political commentator.
As Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party registered a thumping victory in the Delhi assembly polls, take a look at how the heavyweights fared.
Fears of the Congress not having a credible face, after the death of its three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit last July, and ceding its vote bank to the Aam Aadmi Party came true with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party capturing the space once occupied by the grand old party.
'In Kejriwal's re-election, we are finally seeing someone who has successfully bridged his Hindu identity with ground-level development triumphing over the BJP,' notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The Congress party on Tuesday accepted ANI's invitation for a debate with the chief ministerial candidates of its rivals in the Delhi assembly elections, from Bharatiya Janata Party's Kiran Bedi and Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal.
After 'Selfie with Mufflerman' and a series of fund raising dinners across the globe, AAP has roped in its NRI supporters for the party's "tele-door-to-door" campaign to woo voters ahead of the Assembly polls.
Ousted members of AAP's PAC Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan rebutted the allegations of anti-party activities levelled against them.
The emphatic victory in all three municipal corporations in Delhi will enthuse the party to keep its winning trajectory for the next polls, reports Sahil Makkar.
The newly introduced 'None of the Above' option was barely opted by voters in Delhi Assembly polls, for which the results were declared on Sunday.
With election campaigning by political parties ending in the next two days, the Election Commission has directed all multiplexes and theatres in the city to play its theme song on to motivate the voters ahead of the polls.
Reflecting the unease in sections of the Congress over its support to the Aam Aadmi Party to form the government in Delhi, senior party leader Janardan Dwivedi on Tuesday said there was an opinion in the party that the decision to support the AAP was perhaps not correct and it should have instead raised people's issues as an opposition.
'The answer is no, the entire country's is.' 'So why such obsession with Delhi?' 'But the most powerful people in India live here: The prime minister, civil servants, Supreme Court judges, MPs, diplomats, dadas of the media...' 'If they can't deal with their own problem, what chance does the rest of the country have, with its foul air, dying rivers, frothing lakes, and crumbling mountains?' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Their candidates are simple people who will be there in hours of need.'
Will the Aam Aadmi Party repeat its magic or are Delhi voters going to reprimand it for party chief Arvind Kejriwal's maverick 49-day chief ministership in the upcoming state assembly elections? Search for the answer led me to party ideologue Yogendra Yadav, who appears to have some justification and back-of-the-envelope calculations to suggest that his party stands a chance, despite rival Bharatiya Janata Party's surge in other recent state polls.
The BJP's embarrassing rout in Delhi may affect Modi in many ways.
'AAP achieved what it wanted. The BJP achieved what it wanted, a 'Congress mukht Delhi,' and the Congress also achieved what it wanted, which was to keep the BJP out of power.'
The Delhi BJP leadership believes that they can prove the pollsters wrong.
'We were new in politics. We made a mistake. This time around, we will not resign.'
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