Kejriwal an outsider, will send him back to Ghaziabad: BJP's Sunil Yadav

He is an outsider to the constituency, whereas I have lived here for the past 12 years, he added

Sunil Yadav of the BJP has been assigned a herculean task — defeating Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi Assembly constituency in the Assembly polls. In an interview with Nitin Kumar, he discusses his three-pronged campaign strategy — jobs creation, a promise of improving women’s security and frontal attack on Kejriwal over his claims on improving schools. Edited excerpts:

You are the candidate who will take on Kejriwal. How confident are you for a victory?

I am 100 per cent confident that I will send Kejriwal back to Ghaziabad. He is an outsider to the constituency, whereas I have lived here for the past 12 years. I know every voter in my constituency. I am going to people with our policies for Delhi’s development. And people know that if the BJP says something, it will do it, as we have proved at central level. We have everything and everyone covered in our manifesto, from giving wheat flour for Rs 2 per kg to financially assisting weaker sections. However, job creation is my top priority, because Kejriwal has failed by not providing a single job in the past five years. Kejriwal has betrayed all the contractual workers, who had voted for him in 2015, by not giving them permanent jobs.

People want to know who your CM candidate is. How do you plan to explain them?

BJP is the largest and most popular party in the world, but everybody is a common worker here. There have been several instances in the past where the party has not declared a CM candidate. We didn’t declare CM candidate in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh, but won. After winning, we democratically decided our CM. So, after winning this election we will elect our leader.

Who do you consider your main Opponent in this election, Congress or Aam Aadmi Party?

We are fighting this election against the Congress. We do not consider Kejriwal a challenge, because the people of Delhi have made up their mind to teach him a lesson for all his lies and deceit. He has wasted taxpayers’ money on advertisements. Had he used it on growing trees, Delhi would have been pollution free.

Kejriwal has released a report card saying he has fulfilled all promises. Your response?

He has not done anything in the past 4 years and 9 months. He has only alleged that the central government and Lieutenant Governor didn’t allow him to work. He has started giving freebies and sops to people in the past 3 months. I want to ask him, have they not stopped you now? He had promised to open 500 schools, 20 colleges in Delhi. I want to ask him, has he opened a single school, college or university? Can he provide proof that he has opened any educational institute in Delhi? But we can prove that he has spent more than Rs 800 crore on advertisements.

The BJP says it has regularised unauthorised colonies. But the AAP is accusing the central government of not providing registry to people. What do you have to say about this?

Kejriwal wants to deceive people by making false statements. It is not going to get him any success this time because Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled his promise of providing ownership rights to residents of unauthorised colonies. It was the BJP that fought for them and people recognise this. They will vote for us because they want to see real development, which AAP has not been able to deliver.

BJP won all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. Do you think that is going to affect the Assembly polls?

Yes, it will help us. We are confident that we will win more than 50 seats, because in the Lok Sabha polls we led in 65 assembly segments.

Do you think Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will go against the BJP?

No, the BJP will benefit from these protests because people are getting to know the real face of Opposition. There is a big conspiracy to disturb peace in Delhi. They are vandalising and burning government property.

What is your plan for improving women’s safety in Delhi?

Women’s safety is BJP’s top priority. With the help of the central government we will create more women police stations, install more CCTV cameras. We will double our budget for women’s security.

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