With the Aam Aadmi Party heading for a crushing defeat in Delhi municipal corporation elections, social activist Anna Hazare took potshots at his protege and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for failing to act on his own words.
Speaking with news agency ANI, the anti-corruption crusader said, “Kathni aur karni mein antar pad gaya hai (He does not practise what he preaches)”, referring to the AAP leader.
As per the latest report, the (results) break-up was as follows for the BJP, AAP and the Congress: North Delhi: 64, 21 and 15; South Delhi: 70, 16 and 12; East Delhi: 48, 10 and 3.
“People gave him a mandate and he got an opportunity to turn Delhi into a model state for the entire country to replicate. But power is bad. Once you sit in the chair, you lose your power of thinking,” Hazare told IANS
“Instead of working for Delhi, he started thinking about (capturing power in) Punjab and Goa. There was no need for him to hurry. But he was in a hurry and people realised that it is power in his mind and not society or the country,” he added.
Hazare comments came weeks after he slammed the AAP leader for “dashing his hopes” over alleged nepotism and financial irregularities. On April 7, the social activist had said the Delhi chief minister had violated laws and the Constitution, and declared he would never support what the AAP leader has done. “He (Kejriwal) has dashed all my hopes,” PTI had quoted Hazare as saying, while reacting to the Shunglu committee report+ which indicted the Kejriwal’s government for bypassing law, nepotism and financial irregularities.
Riding on Modi wave, BJP is set to retain the three municipal corporations for the third term in a row.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said AAP’s defeat reflected how the party had “failed the people of Delhi”.
He also demanded resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and promised that the new elected civic body would “clean the city in four months”.
