AAP doubting democratic mandate after loss in MCD bypoll: Delhi BJP chief

New Delhi, Dec 19 Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said on Friday that by challenging in court the BJP candidate's victory by 405 votes in the recent by-election to the Ashok Vihar ward of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has once again proved that its leaders do not believe in the democratic mandate.

Sachdeva said on Thursday, while reviewing the Punjab local body elections, that AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal had said that the victory of an Opposition candidate by a margin of just five votes in one ward proved how free and fair the elections were.

"However, in Delhi, the AAP has been unable to digest its candidate's defeat by a margin of 405 votes and is therefore challenging the result in court. This exposes the dark and shameful face of AAP," he added.

The Delhi BJP President said that his party respects the verdict of the people in a democracy, whereas the AAP looks for "foul play" in every loss.

"In the recent municipal elections, when the BJP lost the Naraina Ward by only 148 votes, it readily accepted the public mandate, but the AAP is seeing a conspiracy even in its 405-vote defeat in the Ashok Vihar Ward and has gone to court," Sachdeva added.

Earlier, the Delhi BJP President launched a scathing attack on Kejriwal, accusing him of spreading lies and indulging in the politics of deception over the issue of pollution.

Amid recurring protests by the Delhi AAP over air pollution, Sachdeva highlighted what he described as measures taken by the BJP government to combat pollution and blamed the Kejriwal-led Delhi government's failures for aggravating the national capital's air quality crisis.

He said that Kejriwal should first acknowledge that the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels this year are better than in previous years, attributing the improvement to road repair and infrastructure works undertaken by the BJP government in Delhi.

He added that although the AAP Convenor is generally a master of words, he has now been trapped in the web of his own statements.

"He is now saying that about 15 years ago, pollution in China's capital Beijing was far worse than in Delhi, but the government there took strict measures and brought about improvement," Sachdeva said.

He added that Kejriwal himself has admitted that a decade ago that Beijing's condition was worse than Delhi's.

In such a scenario, he said, Kejriwal -- who ran the Delhi government for the last 11 years -- should explain why the AAP government failed to improve the pollution situation when the Chinese government succeeded during a comparable period.

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