Delhi polls: AAP struggles to fight against BJP as it faces deficit of issues

New Delhi: Up against the BJP’s obvious advantages - manpower, money power and Narendra Modi - the Aam Aadmi Party is hard-pressed to produce one burning issue after another to counter the former’s aggressive campaigning in Delhi for the forthcoming assembly election.

The latest volley from the AAP to counter the BJP’s threat to expose the former with a pack of ‘49 lies’ is the allegation against the Central government that 55 percent of the funds it had allocated under the planned expenditure for Delhi in July have remained unspent.

Meanwhile, the BJP has already launched a battery of 300-odd MPs from across the country to take AAP head on, and has planned for deeper inroads into the vote bank with a document, ‘Vision 2020 for Mission 60’.

Explained Ashwini Upadhyay, Delhi BJP spokesperson, while speaking to Firstpost, “Vision 2020 means the BJP will win power in 2015 and complete its five-year term in Delhi government till 2020. And, Mission 60 means, we’re targeting 60 out of 70 assembly seats.” He said the vision document would have elaborate plans on how to achieve 100 percent literacy in Delhi, how to keep the state garbage-free, issues related to civic amenities, education, health etc.

The AAP, however, makes light of both Brand Modi and BJP’s claims. “In Delhi, Modi factor is ruled out. In Haryana and Maharashtra there was no AAP, and the competitors were weak. Through our rallies, the AAP will counter the BJP by exposing the party’s failure at the Centre in fulfilling the promises it had made and the state of anarchy and misrule in the BJP-dominated MCD administration,” said a senior AAP member requesting anonymity.

“Moreover, the people by now have become aware about the divisive politics being played by the BJP and the recent case of Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti has showed the true colour of the party. Delhi electorate understands these kinds of games well,” the member said. AAP, which has decided to reach out to its voters through its ‘Delhi Dialogue’ that addresses various segments like students and youth, women, rural sector, etc., organised one such meet on ‘Bijli Paani’ (electricity and water) on Monday.

“Instead of just holding rallies, making tall claims and false promises like the BJP and the Congress, our focus is to provide a concrete plan to Delhi’s two crore citizens, so that they can take decision on who to vote for. Through today’s dialogue, we’ll present a vision and a detailed strategy to tackle Delhi’s water crisis and electricity problem. Even during our 49-day stint we fulfilled our promise on electricity and water,” an AAP spokesperson said.

But, the BJP is quick to counter AAP’s strategy and claims, by saying that the ’new born party’ has nothing new to offer. “During the last Assembly election, AAP made big promises to its voters and managed to get 28 seats. But, after forming the government, it quit on the pretext of Jan Lokpal Bill because it failed to fulfill its promises. Making a promise and implementing the same when in government, are two different things. Since AAP was a first-timer, it had no idea to govern,” a Delhi BJP source said.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana said, “The party (AAP) had quit on the issue of Jan Lokpal Bill, but why hasn’t it been taken up till date?”

Besides youth and women’s safety issues, which AAP wants to make top priority, it has focussed on rural Delhi this time to garner more number of seats.

“Delhi has turned out to be a crime capital, with increasing numbers of cases of crime against women. Our top priority is women’s safety and issues related to them,” a woman member in AAP said.

However, a former AAP member questioned, “But, why Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister didn’t initiate a high-level inquiry as promised in the accident death of AAP leader Santosh Koli, which was alleged as ‘murder’, if they are so concerned about women’s issues?”