New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday launched a multi-pronged attack on AAP, accusing the party of spending slush money as well as public funds in poll-bound Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The grand old party is concerned that the entry of AAP in the two states has converted the traditional Congress vs BJP fight into a three-cornered contest. Interestingly, both the national parties have been discounting AAP’s presence in Gujarat and Himachal, saying the new player lacks both a popular face and a party organization.
The Congress attack came a day after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal campaigned in Gujarat and tried to woo the auto drivers just as he had done in Delhi in 2013, when he defeated the Sheila Dikshit government. The Congress deployed senior leader and former IPS officer Ajoy Kumar who had joined the AAP a few years ago but returned to the grand old party soon to take on Arvind Kejriwal, a former IRS officer.
“I call them the Arvind Advertisement Party or Arvind Actors Party. No government would ever do this but the Delhi government reduced the tax of Rs 223 per 350 ml bottle of liquor to just Rs 2 to benefit the private players. Just imagine the kind of money they made in return. That money is now being spent in the poll campaigns of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh,” Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said.
He said Kejriwal changed the norms of licensing in the new liquor policy, which now stands withdrawn after the Centre ordered a CBI probe. “Earlier the licenses had to be given in the ratio of 60: 40 to government and private vendors. Kejriwal changed it to private players only. He also increased the security deposit to Rs 5 cr which allowed only certain players to get license. Obviously, money changed hands here,” he said.
The AICC general secretary further accused the AAP of promoting the party through the use of public money in Delhi and Punjab in the form of heavy advertisement expenditure. “The Punjab government is having difficulty in paying salaries to staff but spent Rs 36 cr over the past two months on advertisements in Gujarat,” said Kumar.
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The Congress leader alleged the AAP made tall promises to the voters of Punjab through advertisements using Delhi taxpayers’ money and was now doing the same in Gujarat and Himachal. “The people of Delhi did not know that their tax money was being spent in Punjab. Now the people of Punjab do not know where the taxes they pay are being spent,” he said.
The heavy attack from the AICC came days after an FIR was registered against Punjab unit working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu. State unit chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who regularly takes on the chief minister over various issues, termed it a political vendetta. “We will protest this injustice strongly,” he said.
Punjab CLP leader Pratap Singh Bajwa has of late been attacking AAP Rajya Sabha MP from the state Raghav Chaddha saying though he had no official position as such, the top state bureaucracy was reporting to him and discussing policy issues.
“Does Mr Chaddha hold a Constitutional position, has he taken an oath of secrecy? The Punjab chief secretary and the DGP report to him. This is being done right under the nose of chief minister Bhagwant Mann. He should clarify if there is any such arrangement. This can’t happen as per norms,” said Bajwa.
“The Punjab government it seems is being run from Delhi,” he said. Citing the example of Delhi, AICC leader Ajoy Kumar pointed out that the AAP has spent Rs 490 cr on advertisements in this year while the annual advertising budget of the previous Sheila Dikshit government was just Rs 11 cr. “The Delhi government spent Rs 19 cr in publicizing a scholarship scheme but actually gave only Rs 20 lakh worth support to just 2 students,” said Kumar.
“They made advance payments for building 7000 new classrooms in Delhi government schools but actually constructed only 4000 classrooms,” he said. Picking holes in the promise being made by the AAP, the Congress leader charged that AAP actually gave just 23 government jobs this Delhi year but was claiming it would provide 10 lakh jobs in Gujarat, if voted to power.
"The AAP is actually playing the BJP's game. They just want to divide anti-BJP votes as the saffron party is having a tough time here," former Gujarat CLP leader Paresh Dhanani said. AICC general secretary Ajoy Kumar further targeted the AAP over its education and healthcare models being promised to lure the voters of Himachal and Gujarat.
“Over 2 lakh students actually left the school under AAP as compared to the previous Sheila Dikshit government. Their claim of students moving from government to private schools happened only during the pandemic period. Now again, the students are shifting towards private schools,” said Kumar. “The AAP built no new hospitals. They only inaugurated the hospitals started during the Sheila Dikshit government. No new flyovers were constructed by them either,” he said, adding that there was corruption in the purchase of new DTC buses.
