Last Updated:
The BJP is trying to repeat in the Delhi assembly elections against AAP what it successfully did against the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — that the incumbent government is rocked by corruption scams
With ‘Sheesh Mahal’ and liquor scam, AAP battles multiple corruption charges in Delhi elections.
After the Sheesh Mahal issue, the BJP’s arsenal against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi election campaign on the issue of corruption has got another boost with a C&AG report pegging the loss caused by the Delhi liquor scam at Rs 2,026 crore.
The BJP is making corruption and the lack of probity in public life the centerpiece of its poll campaign this time, sensing the AAP is on a weak ground on the same.
This makes the 2025 Delhi election very different from the 2020 or the 2015 elections in the national capital. Then, AAP had cashed in on its image of being a ‘Kattar Imaandaar’ (honest) party and its leader Arvind Kejriwal working on the principle of ‘simple living and high thinking’.
The liquor scam and Sheesh Mahal controversy is questioning both these USPs of AAP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also said to have asked BJP leaders to ‘expose’ AAP and Kejriwal on the issue of corruption in Delhi and make more efforts in this regard. BJP leader Anurag Thakur has said there would be no other party whose eight ministers, various MLAs, and the then chief minister and deputy chief minister had to go to jail.
In many ways, the BJP is trying to repeat in the Delhi assembly elections against AAP what it successfully did against the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — that the incumbent government is rocked by corruption scams and people should vote on this issue.
This strategy also is to take the focus away from AAP’s freebies that have worked for Kejriwal’s party in the last two elections. The prime minister has assured Delhi’s voters that no existing schemes running in public interest will be stopped if BJP comes to power.
Top BJP leaders feel the sheen of Kejriwal is gone this time, with serious charges of corruption and scams against him, due to which Kejriwal and senior AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia had to go to jail.
To double down on this issue, the party first raised the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ issue, pointing to a C&AG report that pegged the renovation cost of the chief minister’s residence at Rs 33.6 crore.
Now, the new revelations about the monetary loss caused by the liquor scam are giving the BJP more ammunition against AAP. Remember, this is the same case in which top AAP leaders were jailed. While Kejriwal and Sisodia always claimed that not even a single penny was recovered regarding the alleged scam, the C&AG report is — for the first time — putting a figure to the said scam at Rs 2,026 crore.
One can expect top BJP leaders led by PM Modi to raise this ‘loss figure of Rs 2026 crore’ strongly during the Delhi election campaign that begins in full flow this week.
BJP president JP Nadda has termed this the ‘AAP-DA’ [catastrophe] model of loot in full display and claimed that it is just a matter of a few weeks before AAP is voted out and punished for their misdeeds.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s strategy seems to be terming the C&AG reports as a BJP ploy during elections and the party is playing them down, claiming their top leaders were jailed under false charges. The bail granted to Kejriwal or Sisodia were celebrated by the AAP as big victories.
But the BJP here is trying to tell the voters that coming out on bail does not mean any clean chit and the court trial will go on. It is reminding voters that both C&AG reports, into Sheesh Mahal and the liquor scam, are proof that AAP leaders are not above board.
