Every vote for BJP is against free services: Sisodia on 'freeloaders'

As the Delhi Assembly election nears, the state’s top political parties including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in full swing in campaign work to garner support for their candidates.

As part of the campaign, AAP president and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched its party’s campaign song on Saturday (January 11). A song titled “Acche Beete Paanch Saal, Lage Raho Kejriwal” (Five good years have gone by, Keep going Kejriwal), composed by Bollywood music director Vishal Dadlani, was released by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia along with other party leaders Atishi and Sanjay Singh.

Lage Raho Kejriwal…

Releasing our campaign song for the upcoming Delhi elections.#LageRahoKejriwal pic.twitter.com/Sm0P21wsDW

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 11, 2020

The song posted on AAP’s Twitter handle shows the achievements of Kejriwal government, especially in education and transportation.

Addressing the party workers after the launch of the song, Sisodia said the song represented the ‘voice of the people’. He also demanded the BJP to apologise to the Delhi people for calling them ‘freeloaders’

“Elections are coming… listen to the statements of these (BJP) leaders. They are calling you (people of Delhi) freeloaders. Voting for them means higher price for education, electricity and bus rides. People should be very careful,” he said according to IANS.

“BJP should apologise to people of Delhi for calling them ‘freeloaders’. It is duty of every government to serve the people. We are here to save citizens of Delhi. By calling public ‘freeloader’, BJP is insulting parents who send their kids to government schools… won’t tolerate this humiliation,” he said.

Sisodia, who is also the Delhi finance minister, took a jibe at the country’s economic crisis and said that people anyway don’t have money as the economy is going down and asked the BJP why they wanted to put more pressure on them?

Sisodia also said that each vote cast for the BJP in the upcoming assembly election would be a vote against free electricity, education and healthcare.

Every now and then AAP and BJP are at each other’s throat and since the election is around the corner it has only intensified.

The national capital will go into polls on February 8 in a single-phase and the results will be announced on February 11.

The Delhi election notification will be issued on January 14 and the last date for submission of the candidate name is January 21. The last date for withdrawal of the candidate’s name is January 24.

Nobel economist Abhijit Banerjee lauds Delhi govt schools’ performance

Nobel Laureate in economics Abhijit Banerjee acknowledged the performance of Delhi government schools and lauded the government schools for outperforming the private ones.

Such a proud moment for Delhi … Nobel laureate Abhijit Bannerjee acknowledges the performance of Delhi's govt schools

This year Class 12 results of Delhi govt schools were at 96%, while pvt schools were at 93% https://t.co/mNqEB386PN

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 11, 2020

The economist also said that the state agencies have been generous with resource allocation for education which is an important aspect when it comes to teachers’ salaries and system.

Reacting to Banerjee’s comments, Delhi CM Kejriwal shared it on Twitter and quoted, “Such a proud moment for Delhi. Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee acknowledges the performance of Delhi govt schools.”

EC conducts special campaign in low voter turnout areas

A special awareness drive was kicked off by the Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) seeking to ensure wider participation of voters from low-turnout constituencies in the upcoming polls, officials said.

The campaign will run across 30 assembly constituencies which saw a low turnout in 2019 Lok Sabha polls here, they said.

Also read | With Assembly polls ahead, BJP finds it tough against AAP in Delhi

“Seeking to achieve greater participation of voters in 30 assembly constituencies in Delhi that reported low voter turnout in Lok Sabha polls last year, Delhi CEO Ranbir Singh in association with District Election Officer (DEO) East Delhi Arun Kumar Mishra started the special awareness campaign on Saturday,” a senior official said.

On the first day of the campaign, street plays on the theme of ‘voter participation’ and ‘functioning of EVM/VVPAT’ were performed at Laxmi Nagar constituency, the Delhi CEO office said. To further engage voters, a quiz was organised in which various questions related to the election process and schedule were asked, the CEO office said in a statement.

(With inputs from agencies)