Delhi poll: BJP leaders spend night in slums; AAP chief says they’re doing ‘jhuggi tourism’

Be cautious of BJP leaders, they will get your houses razed a year later, says Kejriwal; ex-Delhi CM can sense voters slipping away and realise that jhuggi clusters are no longer AAP’s stronghold: BJP

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused the BJP of indulging in “jhuggi tourism” ahead of the Delhi Assembly election due in February next year.

Mr. Kejriwal made the comment during his party’s 13th foundation day ceremony even as leaders of the BJP’s city unit visited 250 slum clusters in the national capital as part of their ‘Ratri Pravas Samvaad’ (night stay dialogue) campaign.

Addressing party workers, the former Delhi Chief Minister said, “On Tuesday evening, some BJP leaders are going to stay in slums, just like people take a day off to visit Goa for leisure.”

“Spending one night with the poor is mocking their poverty. If you have the courage, live in slums for three or four months to see the conditions in which people there survive,” said Mr. Kejriwal. He accused the BJP-led Centre of conducting, through its agencies, demolition drives against the city’s slum colonies.

“These are the same people who will leave your children struggling on the streets a year from now. Over the years, we saved many slums, but there were some we could not protect. The BJP demolished them. So, you need to stay cautious of those who are coming today to live in your homes for jhuggi tourism,” he added.

‘On the wane’

Hitting back, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva, who visited a slum in Patparganj Assembly seat for the night stay, said the AAP chief’s statements show that he fears losing the upcoming poll.

“Till a couple of years ago, the jhuggi clusters were Kejriwal’s political stronghold. However, in the 2022 civic election and the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, AAP lost most of the wards and Assembly segments dominated by jhuggi residents, which has come as a big setback to Kejriwal,” he added.

BJP national general secretary Dushyant Gautam said slum cluster residents in Delhi “feel that they were misled by Kejriwal in 2015 and 2020.”

“But they now realise that Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought a lot of progress in their home towns. This is why they will vote for the BJP,” he said.

Published - November 27, 2024 01:08 am IST