New Delhi: Hitting out at its INDIA bloc ally, former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday pointed out that Delhi used to witness long hours of power cuts under the previous Congress regime. The attack against the grand old party comes ahead of the Delhi assembly election set to be held in February.
The AAP and Congress are among the more than 20 parties in the opposition INDIA bloc.
Kejriwal said: “Ten years ago, people made me the chief minister. You people asked me to improve education facilities, and I did that. When the Congress was in power, there used to be 8-10 hours of power cuts. But now, people no longer need to use invertors and generators.”
He was speaking at a public gathering in the Kalkaji assembly constituency, with party colleague Atishi, the Kalkaji legislator who succeeded him as chief minister, alongside. In September, Kejriwal quit as chief minister, just days after the Supreme Court gave him bail in the excise policy case but barred him from performing official duties. Kejriwal said he wanted a “certificate of honesty” from the people and stated that he would not hold any position before the assembly polls.
VIDEO | “10 years ago, you (referring to people of Delhi) made me the CM. You had asked me to improve the education facilities in Delhi, and I did that… Besides, I also improved the electricity facilities. When Congress was in power (in Delhi), there used to 8-10 hours of power… pic.twitter.com/GiB4eNXOmE
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 1, 2024
It was in December 2013 that the AAP formed the government in Delhi with outside support from the Congress. Kejriwal succeeded Congress veteran Sheila Dikshit as chief minister. Since then, the AAP has driven the Congress out of power in Punjab and forayed into other states. The Congress had accused AAP of giving benefit to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by splitting the anti-BJP vote.
In July 2023, the AAP and Congress tied up with other opposition parties to form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc to take on the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
