Delhi: Bulldozer politics aimed at winning MCD elections, says Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary

In order to win the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections which are expected to be held by the end of this year, BJP has devised bulldozer politics, said Delhi Pradesh Congress chief Anil Chaudhary.

In many areas, especially Muslim dominated areas such as Jahangirpuri, Shaheen Bagh, Madanpur Khadar, the BJP led MCDs have recently been carrying out demolition drive against alleged encroachment .

Talking To NH, Chaudhary, who started his political career with the student wing of the grand old party -NSUI, opined that the local body elections were withheld “because BJP was not confident of winning the polls”.

“However, they are trying hard, using divide and rule formula to create rifts among communities. RSS cadres have been campaigning on this line for months in every corner of the capital city,” said Chaudhary.

“Local body elections will be held only after BJP gets a little confident of winning the polls,” added the young face of the Delhi Congress.

Accusing the BJP government at center for failing the people, Chaudhary asked, “Who should be held responsible if encroachment has been on the rise in the city?”

Pertinently, BJP holds the power at all three MCDs that have recently been merged after the parliament passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in March this year.

The Bill seeks to unify the three municipal corporations of the national capital. Opposition parties like AAP, Congress and TMC have termed the Bill as “unconstitutional”.

Pointing out that the Modi government did not have any rationale to prove as to why the merger of the MCDs was done, Chaudhary emphasised that the Congress government led by the then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit had divided the local bodies into three civic bodies to cater to the growing population of Delhi.

When asked what issues Congress will raise during the local body polls, Chaudhary said that corruption, health, water and power supply will be main poll planks on which Congress will seek votes.

“People of Delhi want to get rid of both the BJP and AAP. Congress’ performance in the local body polls will lay the foundation for the return of Congress in Delhi,” said Chaudhary.

In the 2017 Delhi municipality elections, the saffron party had bagged the highest number of votes, 38.59 per cent in East Delhi, 35.96 per cent in North Delhi and 35.88 per cent votes in South Delhi respectively.

The AAP had bagged the highest number of votes at 27.98 per cent in North Delhi Municipal Corporation while the Congress secured 22.74 per cent votes in East Delhi.