AAP pokes fun at Cong vice president over Delhi focus

The Delhi AAP on Wednesday poked fun at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over his May 28 march here over water and power in the city.

Reflecting the new party’s growing political muscle, Delhi AAP chief Dilip Pandey wrote an open letter to Gandhi and welcomed him to Delhi political arena, adding that this was the only option left for the Congress leader after he failed at the national level in effectively opposing the Narendra Modi government’s policy.

The Delhi Congress dubbed the AAP’s open letter as signs of panic in the new party after its poor show in the civic polls and the threat from Congress revival.

In his letter in Hindi addressed to Gandhi, Pandey said: “Welcome to Delhi political arena. I and AAP volunteers will personally receive you at the starting point of your march.”

Gandhi’s “Mashal Yatra”  – from Rajghat to Delhi Secretariat – would  highlight at the alleged water and power crisis in the city.

Pandey took a dig at Gandhi for raising city-specific issues and said: “You failed miserably in opposing Modi government’s policy at the national level. It would be good if you conceded the responsibility to Arvind Kejriwal.”

Pandey also blamed the previous Congress governments in the city for corruption in the privatisation of power utility and the resultant problems being faced by citizens.

Had the Anti-Corruption Branch been with the Delhi government, both former chief minister Sheila Dikshit and former city power minister Ajay Maken would have faced strict action, he said.

Pandey also claimed that the water-power situation in the city was much better than many other states.

He even advised Gandhi to focus on improving water-power situation in Congress-ruled states. “You may be thrown out of power in these states if you fail to do so,” said Pandey.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said Pandey’s letter was a sign of panic in the AAP after the new party’s vote share “dropped” in the just concluded civic bypolls and the Congress gained tremendously.

“The fast-eroding popularity of the AAP government in its 15-month rule in Delhi was evident from the fact that the AAP lost 24 percent vote share in the MCD byelection to 13 wards, which had seven lakh voters,” he said.

Maken said the AAP was rattled by the Congress victory in five wards in the MCD byelections, which was a shocker for both the AAP and the BJP as none of the seats which went to the bypolls was held by the Congress since 2007.

He said the AAP’s failure on power front was evident from the fact that the Bawana Power Plant, which has an installed capacity of 1370 MW, could produce in the last eight days average power of only 263 MW.

He said the Bawana power plant has not been able to function to its installed capacity due to shortage of gas, and the Arvind Kejriwal Government has not done anything to run the plant to its full capacity by getting enough gas supply to the plant from the Centre.

Kejriwal, who locks horns with the central government frequently, has not found time to write a letter to the Narendra Modi government to get enough gas supply to run the Bawana power plant to its full capacity.