BJP trains guns at city govt ads

After Lokayukta raps CM, oppn meets Prez to seek swift action

Having found new ammunition in form of indictment of chief minister Sheila Dikshit by lokayukta, the opposition BJP has decided to intensify its attacks against the Delhi government ahead of the Assembly polls.

Following the Lokayukta’s attack on Dikshit for misusing public money in publicity campaign ahead of 2008 Assembly elections, the BJP on Sunday demanded the Delhi government to immediately take off all the advertisements which the party had put on to  highlight its achievements. 

The party set a deadline of three days to remove them, after which the BJP workers threaten to cover the hoardings with posters carrying message — don’t misuse public money for false propaganda”.

“On one hand, we have a clear case of misue of public money. On the other hand, we are seeing blatant use of public money happening. We have information that the government has spent more than Rs 100 crore of public money over past couple of months for the political campaign under the garb of government advertising campaign,” said Vijay Goel, Delhi BJP president. 

“We also have information that more than Rs 300 crore have been spent in addition to this over last three years by the government on false political propaganda,” Goel added.

The party also demanded the city government to reveal how much money has been spent on the hoardings. He said it has now become clear that she is not ready to return Rs 11 crore to the state exchequer as directed by the Lokayukta.

CM’s dismissal

The BJP leaders also met President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday to demand dismissal of Dikshit. BJP leader V K Malhotra submitted a memorandum to Mukherjee, requesting him to direct Dikshit to resign immediately or dismiss her government in view of the Lokayukta order against her.

“The chief minister must be removed as the Lokayukta had held her guilty in a serious matter,” Malhotra said after meeting the President.

In the memorandum, the BJP said the Lokayukta had indicted Dikshit and her government on a number of “serious matters” earlier too, but no action has been taken so far.

“The Lokayukta can only send recommendations to the President. On recommendations of the Lokayukta, the President seeks opinion of the home ministry and the home ministry sends back the queries to the Delhi government. And ultimately, no action is taken against the guilty,” said Malhotra.

“Even the Lokayukta has said that the President has not been advised correctly,” he added.