NEW DELHI: Ahead of the civic polls, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday launched Janmat Sangrah (Public Opinion) — a week-long campaign against the city government’s liquor
policy — at the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station. Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta led a team of supporters asking commuters their opinion on the new excise policy of the government.
Senior party leaders in a statement said that the drive seeking referendum from around 10 lakh people on the policy was carried out at 1,120 places across the 272 municipal wards. “To carry out the drive, a team of five party workers was deployed at every ward. Including MLAs, district and morcha presidents and vice-presidents about 50,000 workers participated in the drive,” said Gupta.
TrainingT his guns at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Gupta said that the way the party was getting feedback against the new liquor policy, 99 people in the city know that the new “sharab niti” is actually a “kharab niti”.“The policy particularly raises a question mark on the future of youngsters and security of women. Promising to start 500 new schools, colleges etc. the government actually did the job of giving contracts to liquor mafia,” said Gupta.
He added that by misleading the courts, the government has opened liquor shops in residential areas and in close vicinity to educational institutions and religious places. Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly, alleged that the AAP is hell-bent upon pushing Delhi towards alcoholism and that the BJP would never tolerate this.
The municipal elections are due to be held in April and the BJP, which has been ruling the three corporations for 15 years now, is eyeing a fourth term. A senior BJP leader said the campaign for the elections has already begun.