BJP workers and supporters played the drums and chanted his name as well as Jai Shri Ram in the background as he told residents that, after the BJP government is formed, he will get rid of all Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from the national capital within a year.
Invest in Trusted Journalism
Your support helps us deliver unbiased, on-the-ground reporting, in-depth interviews and insightful opinions that matter.
“Kejriwal has made ration cards, Aadhar, voter ID cards of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis. His MLAs and ministers provide legal aid to these people by arranging lawyers for them. So the police are not able to do anything,” Verma alleged. “A BJP government will be formed in Delhi and not a single Bangladeshi and Rohingya will be left in Delhi,” he told ThePrint.
Verma made it a point to reach out to women voters of the constituency and many of them asked him about the Rs 2,500 scheme that the party has announced for eligible women if voted to power. “We have made the promise to give Rs 2,500 to women and we will give and not make empty promises like AAP,” he told ThePrint.
Just weeks before the assembly elections, AAP and the former BJP MP had been at loggerheads after AAP accused Verma of distributing cash in the New Delhi constituency, especially to women voters. “Kejriwal has been lying all through the campaign. On 8 February, when he loses he will make the excuse that all EVMs were hacked,” Verma said.
Also Read: Rahul-Priyanka rallies, tickets to defectors, why Congress is betting big on these 12 Delhi seats
‘Kejriwal will lose his deposit in these elections’
Verma represented the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency from 2014 to 2019 and also won from Mehrauli in the 2013 Assembly elections. His father Sahib Singh Verma served as the chief minister of Delhi between 1996 and 1998. Hitting out at the AAP leader, Verma said Kejriwal’s “mental balance” has deteriorated since he ‘came here to fight’.
“He can see his defeat clearly. Arvind Kejriwal will lose his deposit in these elections,” he said, alleging that Kejriwal “will get himself attacked a few days before elections”.
“Arvind Kejriwal has been renamed as Arvind Ghoshnawaal. He doesn’t do any work but keeps on repeating the same guarantees,” he said, reiterating that Kejriwal will lose.
Asked if he is the party’s CM candidate, Verma said, “If BJP gives me a chance, toh theek hai, achhi baat hai (then it is good).”
The BJP has not named a chief ministerial candidate and is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brand to win the assembly elections. The party has been out of power in the national capital since 1998 and sees this election as a golden opportunity.
When asked whether the Delhi polls are being fought between Modi and Kejriwal, Parvesh said, the Prime Minister has too high a stature to be in competition with the AAP chief.
Adding that the two “are incomparable,” Verma said, “This election is between Arvind Kejriwal and I and Kejriwal will lose the elections.”
Accuses Kejriwal of lying
Verma dismissed AAP’s allegations that the Modi-led central government was stalling development work in Delhi. “These are mere excuses and lies. My father was also the CM at one point and there is never any interference at the L-G (lieutenant governor) level if one wants to work.”
He gave examples from the past, claiming that despite different parties being in power at the Centre and in Delhi, work in the national capital was never affected.
“When my father was the CM, we had a Congress government at the Centre. My father never made any excuses. When Sheila Dikshit was the CM, we had a BJP government at the Centre and even she never made such excuses,” he said.
“Across the country, no other Congress CM says such things. He (Kejriwal) is the only one who says such things.”
He also compared the situation to Opposition-held states across the country. “There are other Congress governments running in the country and no one complains that the PM is not letting them work,” he told ThePrint.
“Kejriwal does not want to work but make false promises and through deception he wants to create a fear in the minds of the people that if BJP comes to power people will face difficulties.”
The results for the assembly elections will come out on 8 February.
