Yadav questioned Kejriwal’s conspicuous silence on ten specific questions posed by the Delhi Congress regarding his government’s failure to safeguard slum dwellers during his tenure.
File Photo: ANI
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Devender Yadav on Monday accused AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal of betraying the poor and maintaining a complicit silence as he said the BJP-led Delhi government demolished several JJ clusters across the national capital.
Addressing the media at Rajiv Bhawan, the DPCC headquarters, Yadav questioned Kejriwal’s conspicuous silence on ten specific questions posed by the Delhi Congress regarding his government’s failure to safeguard slum dwellers during his tenure. Yadav said Kejriwal’s refusal to respond was not just political cowardice but a “betrayal of the poor who once stood by him.”
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“For over 11 years, Kejriwal ignored the needs of slum dwellers. Now, after losing power and his own seat, he resurfaces with hollow statements while thousands have been rendered homeless,” Yadav said. He alleged that both AAP and BJP had colluded in systematically driving out the poor from Delhi, with bulldozers razing down clusters under Rekha Gupta’s BJP-led administration.
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Yadav further accused the former AAP government of squandering an opportunity to provide housing to the urban poor. He said that the Congress-initiated Rajiv Rattan Awas Yojna, which delivered 45,000 ready-to-occupy flats by 2015, was ignored by Kejriwal, who “neither allotted them nor built a single new flat during his time.”
Had the AAP government taken proactive steps, including legal assurances in court and introducing an ordinance to halt demolitions, thousands could have been protected from displacement, Yadav claimed.
He added that the Congress had previously secured a stay order on cluster demolitions near railway tracks through the courts, setting a precedent for what could have been done.
Yadav also lashed out at both the AAP and BJP for “vote bank politics,” citing how BJP leaders made grand promises in JJ clusters before elections but reneged once in power. “What we see now is a nexus between BJP and AAP, targeting the poor while pretending to fight each other in public,” he alleged.
Yadav also lashed out at both the AAP and BJP for “vote bank politics,” citing how BJP leaders made grand promises in JJ clusters before elections but reneged once in power. “What we see now is a nexus between BJP and AAP, targeting the poor while pretending to fight each other in public,” he alleged.
Turning his focus to ongoing governance issues, Yadav criticized the “Triple Engine” BJP government for its poor handling of monsoon preparedness. He said the city’s outdated storm-water drains and sewer systems continue to falter each year without comprehensive upgrades.
“Delhi doesn’t need piecemeal repairs or photo ops. It needs bold infrastructure reform like what was delivered under Smt. Sheila Dikshit’s Congress Government,” Yadav said.
He also raised the issue of Delhi’s continuing power and water woes, noting that despite BJP being in power in neighboring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the Rekha Gupta-led Delhi administration had failed to secure interstate water-sharing agreements or address the 58% water leakage issue plaguing the capital.
“From Kejriwal’s theatrics to BJP’s bulldozers, both parties have failed Delhi’s poor on every front,” Yadav concluded, calling for a political alternative grounded in vision, execution, and social justice.
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