AAP is a disaster; people of Delhi want to give BJP a chance this time: BJP National VP Baijayant Panda

What will be the strategy of the BJP for the upcoming Assembly Election in Delhi? Will the saffron party be able to bring double-engine governance to the National Capital?

In a podcast with ANI, BJP National Vice President and MP from Kendrapara- Baijayant Panda, who has been appointed as the party's Delhi election in-charge, discussed his party's manifesto and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) false promises and corruption.

In the podcast, Panda accused AAP of focusing on drama and said that Delhi citizens want a double-engine government that works without conflict. 

 “We have made some good progress since the last election and we are taking the work forward. I was in charge of Delhi earlier when we had the MCD elections in 2022 and we set a new record in vote share. We are taking the same approach forward much more intensively. We will be forming the government this time by increasing the vote share,” said Panda.

“Traditionally, we used to form the government with about a third of the votes in the 80s and 90s. That was the era of coalitions all across the country. Now in the last 10 years, our vote share has continually gone up. In the previous Assembly Elections in 2020, we got a 38 per cent vote share and in the MCD elections, we got a 40 per cent vote share. What’s even more important is that the disaster (AAP) which has been taking over Delhi for the last 10 years used to have a large lead mainly because of so many false promises they give to people. They used to get double digits. But in the MCD elections that lead came to barely 2 per cent. Now once again, in the Lok Sabha elections, we won all seven seats. We got well over 51 per cent of the vote share. In recent elections, no one expected our success in places like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and especially Haryana and Maharashtra. It was a tremendous positive atmosphere and our ‘karyakartas’ were charged up,” he further said.

“Most of all, the people of Delhi have given a chance to Congress in the past, they have given a chance to this disaster (AAP) for the last 10 years. I think they now want to give a chance to BJP to take Delhi in the right direction,” he added.

Must Read: Delhi needs double engine govt & freedom from AAP’s corruption & false assurances: BJP National VP Baijayant Panda

Answering a question about how will BJP be able to win state elections without the votes of the Muslims, Panda said, “It’s worth looking at the Modi government’s track record. Over these nearly eleven years, lakhs and crores of rupees have been spent across the country on different government schemes. ‘Har ghar nal se jal (piped water to every household) was a dream for decades. Other schemes like ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana' are the world’s largest food aid to 800 million people. More than 35 million houses were built for the underprivileged under the Awas Yojana. We are very proud of our track record. You can’t point a single example of discrimination.”

“We have double-engine government in so many states. There is not a single case in which somebody has been discriminated on the basis of religion or for any other reason. We don’t connect our governance to our appeal for votes. But the fact is-in seeking votes, we seek the blessings of all sections of society. I refer to them as ‘AAPda’ (AAP). They are not the representatives of the common man at all. They are a disaster that has been foisted on Delhi which people are dying to remove. The ‘AApda’ pandered to these votes. They had a vote bank approach and they pandered to them. They have cheated the people. They think they can just buy the votes and they don’t have to do any work. They are very much cynical. Tens of thousands of crores of rupees from the Modi government were on offer which they are simply not availing despite strictures of Court. They think that it will give more popularity to Prime Minister Modi who is already the world’s most popular leader. AAP has not cleaned Yamuna River despite promises. Let’s separate governance from the appeal for votes. In our appeal for votes, the approach is again the same that we are reaching out to everybody,” he added.