Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday hit out at former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for taking U-turn on Delhi statehood and said if full statehood to Delhi is not possible, then why she included this issue in her manifesto of 2015 assembly elections.
"Sheila Dikshit in a press conference on Tuesday said that full statehood to Delhi is not possible nor it should be made an issue in the Lok Sabha elections. If full statehood to Delhi was not possible, then why did Dikshit in her statement of November 21, 2013 stated that due to Delhi not being a full state, there has been a problem of coordination between different agencies and such problems would have been resolved had Delhi been a full state," Rai said while addressing a press conference here.
The Delhi Cabinet minister further attacked Congress on including Delhi statehood in their manifesto for assembly elections held in 2015 and not now.
Rai said: "In the Congress manifesto in 2015, it was said that Delhi will be granted full statehood. I want to ask what is your helplessness that now you want to keep this issue out of your manifesto."
The Cabinet minister further spoke on why full statehood for Delhi should be an election issue for Lok Sabha elections.
"The way for Delhi statehood is through the parliament and not Delhi Assembly," he said.
"We have passed a proposal in Delhi Assembly that the Central government keep whole NDMC area under their control and give power to Delhi government like other states. We have sent this proposal to the Centre," Rai said.
AAP also released the list of its star campaigners which includes Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai, Sanjay Singh, Bhagwant Mann, Sushil Gupta, MD Gupta, Satyendra Jain, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Kailash Gehlot, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Rakhi Birla, Jarnail Singh, and Shenaz Hindustani.
AAP has already announced its candidates for seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.
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