Delhi assembly polls a ‘dharamyudh’ like Mahabharata: Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday compared the upcoming Delhi assembly elections to a “dharamyudh” (righteous war), while urging his party workers to not look at individual candidates and rather, work as if he (Kejriwal) himself is contesting from all 70 seats in the Capital.
Kejriwal made the remarks while addressing district-level officials at a party conference in Chandni Chowk.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back, calling Kejriwal a “defeated and desperate leader”.
The Delhi assembly elections are due in February next year.
Addressing the AAP conference, Kejriwal claimed that the BJP lacks the will to serve the people of Delhi.
“We are a small party with limited resources. The BJP has immense funds and power, but they have never done anything for the people of Delhi because they lack the will to serve. Don’t look at the candidate who gets the ticket… You should work as if I am contesting all the 70 seats (in Delhi),” the AAP chief said.
Kejriwal reminded AAP functionaries of the party’s achievements, claiming credit for building 10,000km of roads in Delhi’s colonies — a feat he alleged that the BJP could not match in the 20 states where it holds power.
“We are giving the people of Delhi six free revris of electricity, water, education, health, pilgrimage and bus travel to women. The BJP wants the power of Delhi at all costs because it wants to stop these revris being given to the public,” he said.
The AAP chief alleged that the BJP was prepared to overturn the mayoral elections. “They had come with a complete chakravyuh (trap) to break our councillors. Their biggest leaders remained seated in the house till the counting of the last vote. They had planned to take out a rally from the Civic Centre to the BJP headquarters but did not succeed,” he said.
Kejriwal said that in the Delhi elections, BJP will do anything to defeat AAP. “We have done a lot of work but many things are still pending. It is my dream that one day all people of Delhi will be workers of the Aam Aadmi Party. There will be no BJP person. One day we will bring all the leaders of BJP in Delhi to our party.”
Hitting back, the BJP said Kejriwal and the AAP will lose the polls due to the corruption allegations against the Delhi government.
“Arvind Kejriwal is a defeated and desperate leader who knows he is on his way out of power. His claim of contesting and winning all 70 seats is merely an attempt to boost the morale of his disheartened party workers… No matter how hard Kejriwal tries, he will have to pay the price for the corruption in his government,” Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said.