Delhi Election 2025 Live Updates: 'Delhi people are asking who will be BJP's CM face,' says Atishi

Having decided to make the chief minister’s residence a central strategy to nail Aam Aadmi Party in the assembly polls, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, party workers and journalists, visited the bungalow at 17 AB Mathura Road allocated to CM Atishi. The latter has claimed that she was prevented from staying at the 6 Flagstaff Road house that has been in controversy for the alleged extravagance in its renovation as the CM’s residence.

BJP also alleged AAP had tried to tamper with proof in the Flagstaff Road bungalow after senior AAP functionaries tried to enter the house on Wednesday.

Accompanying Sachdeva were state media head Praveen Shankar Kapoor and senior Vikram Mittal. Addressing the media, Sachdeva posed four questions to Atishi. He said, “Please clarify to whom the bungalow at 17 AB Mathura Road is allocated. Isn’t it true that former CM Sheila Dikshit ran the govt from this same bungalow between 1998 and 2004? If so, why can’t Atishi do the same?” He also wanted to know who lived in the bungalow allocated to Atishi when she was a minister.

Sachdeva alleged that AAP was attempting to deflect criticism over the renovation of the Flagstaff Road bungalow, which BJP has dubbed Sheesh Mahal, by raising questions about the prime minister’s residence. He asked, “Why wasn’t 6 Flagstaff Road declared as the official CM’s residence during Arvind Kejriwal’s tenure?” He argued that the PM’s residence was an officially designated property where construction and renovation were transparently carried out, unlike the alleged irregularities surrounding the construction activities at 6 Flagstaff Road under Kejriwal.

An urbanised assembly constituency, Rohini’s residents comprise businessmen and professionals and a small chunk of the lower middle class living in slum clusters. BJP considers it a safe seat, banking on the social class that it considers its core vote bank. Indeed it won the seat in in 2015 and 2020. But a win is not a cut-and-dried prospect for the saffron party this year, with voters in the over 165 cooperative housing societies in the constituency claiming to have been alienated by the sitting MLA.

The sitting MLA, BJP’s Vijendra Gupta, who was also the leader of opposition in the outgoing assembly, started his electoral career from Rohini by winning a North Delhi Municipal Corporation seat in 1997. People allege that he is taking the constituency for granted now. “See, BJP will win the upcoming elections, but the winning margin will depend on the candidate fielded by the party,” declared Om Prakash Malhotra, general secretary, Sector 15 RWA. “Gupta is no longer active and didn’t initiate developmental works as expected of him. He even shifted to Greater Kailash from here.”

Tushar Pulisht, a sound engineer who lives in Sector 3, pointed out that crime has been checked, but other problems have replaced the area’s major lacks. “It’s a good neighbourhood, has many parks and open spaces. But there seems to be a lack of maintenance. We also need to see our MLA more often,” said Pulisht.

With BJP making the allegedly extravagant expenditure on the renovation of the then chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal’s residence the pivot of its poll campaign – dubbing it as “Sheesh Mahal” – AAP joined the battle on Wednesday.

The party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj attempted to enter the bungalow at 6 Flagstaff Road which has been taken over by PWD with the avowed purpose of “exposing the lies” spread by BJP. As expected, they were stopped by a big contingent of Delhi Police. The house had been barricaded.

“For months, BJP leaders have been shouting that the Delhi chief minister’s residence has a gold toilet, a swimming pool and a mini bar. I brought the media here along with our minister. We invited the fourth pillar of democracy to see for themselves where this gold toilet, mini bar and swimming pool are,” said Singh.
“But instead of transparency, we were met with water cannon buses deployed for just two people and a heavy police presence. Are we terrorists?” he said.

AAP had announced on Tuesday that they would enter the residence of the then chief minister Kejriwal with the media. The bungalow had been offered last year to chief minister Atishi but was reclaimed by PWD on Jan 6, which, according to Delhi Police, had asked for police deployment outside the house, anticipating a law-and-order problem. The PWD is currently in possession of the bungalow and has offered two other bungalows to Atishi.

After being stopped by the cops, both AAP functionaries sat on a dharna outside the residence for a few minutes. Later, they left for Prime Minister Narendar Modi’s residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.

On the way, they were intercepted by Delhi Police at the Teen Murti roundabout, which is close to the PM’s residence. Then a police team escorted the vehicles of Singh and Bharadwaj to a different route. Finally, they were stopped at Tughlaq Road police station from going any further. They once again staged a dharna for a few minutes before turning back.

Garbage will be a major issue when people decide who to vote for on Feb 5. There is exasperation all round at the continuing struggle with managing the overused landfills, poor waste management and non-adherence to the guidelines under the Solid Waste Management Bylaws. Poll assurance on these aspects of the city’s governance have fallen by the wayside and the electorate is wary now.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has three exhausted landfills at Okhla, Ghazipur and Bhalswa, where over 160 lakh tonnes of legacy waste lie and 3,000-3,500 tonnes of fresh waste continues to be dumped at the latter two landfills. At the time of the previous assembly polls, the Ghazipur landfill had reached a height of 65 metres, just 8 metres short of the Qutub Minar.

During the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Ghazipur landfill had to be flattened. At this time, BJP was at the helm in MCD, being the ruling party there for 15 years. Earlier in 2019, the National Green Tribunal expressed serious concern at the unhygienic conditions created by the garbage mounds, MCD initiated the first phase of biomining operations in 2020. The Union housing and urban affairs ministry allo cated Rs 1,395.6 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 for the remediation and biomining of waste at the three sites.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar praised AAP chief and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal saying that the whole nation should adopt the governance model which was introduced by chief minister under which he gave several guarantees.

Kakkar stated that the model which was introduced by Arvind Kejriwal, has guaranteed the lowest inflation, highest per capita income, lowest unemployment and many more things.

Speaking to ANI, Kakkar praised Kejriwal's financial management skills, stating, "Arvind Kejriwal's government in Delhi has introduced a governance model which I think the whole country should adopt. The model under which Arvind Kejriwal ji has guaranteed the lowest inflation, highest per capita income, lowest unemployment and more. This can only be done by an accounts magician who takes care of every section and yet presents a profitable budget. This should happen in the entire country."

Ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday called the Aam Aadmi Party its "opponent" in the national capital and said that the party is in "misconception" of winning the elections and the situation here has changed.

"They (the AAP) are our opposition. They are harbouring a misconception since they won twice (in Delhi). The situation in Delhi has changed now. Congress is doing a better campaign and this time, the results will be different," Gehlot told ANI.

Reacting to Gehlot's remarks, Arvind Kejriwal shared a clip of Ashok Gehlot's remarks and said that the former Rajasthan Chief Minister's comments have proved that Congress-BJP are fighting Delhi elections 'together'.

Coming out heavily against the Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shazia Ilmi called it a party of "hooligans" and "expert liar" and questioned its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal over his 'common man' image and said he is using luxury items like "gold-plated fixtures, expensive curtains, and massage chairs."

Speaking to ANI, Ilmi said, "Aam Aadmi Party is a party of hooligans, fanatical, expert liars, who have one by one harmed the dignity of the CM post or any other elected government. The person who used to call himself Aam Aadmi behind whom we all stood and for whom Anna Hazare nearly died, is using a gold-plated commode, curtains worth Rs 4 crores. During the Corona period when people of Delhi were struggling, this person was thinking about how to buy massage chairs, curtains, recliners, chandeliers, luxury kitchen stuff."

With an eye on the upcoming Delhi assembly elections, Congress on Wednesday announced 'Jeevan Raksha Yojana', promising to provide Rs 25 lakh health cover per family.

The announcement was made at a press conference by former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot here.

Gehlot termed the scheme a "game changer" in Delhi

"...We have given a lot of coverage to the health... 'Jeevan Raksha Yojana' of the Delhi government will be similar to 'Chiranjeevi Yojana' of the Rajasthan government...I am happy that I got the opportunity to launch this scheme here," the senior congress leader told reporters later.

"...The health insurance scheme of Rajasthan has been very successful and in Delhi we will do the same. It provides benefit to all whereas Ayushman Bharat has its limitations...," he told reporters.

He also expressed optimism about the state polls, "...The situation in Delhi has changed now. Congress is doing a better campaign and this time, the results will be different."