A day after he claimed that progress had been made on the Delhi government’s proposal to subsidise travel for women commuters on public transport, both the BJP and the Congress attempted to corner Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on his assertion here on Thursday.
While the BJP cited the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC) proposal in this regard to argue that Mr. Kejriwal was attempting to mislead the people of Delhi, the Congress sought to argue that the same proposal illustrated his “inexperience in governance”.
‘Vote bank politics’
“Mr. Kejriwal’s intention is to mislead the people. The reality [in regard to the implementation of the scheme] as shown by the DMRC indicates that he is trying to play vote bank politics by promising free travel to women in Delhi Metro and DTC buses,” BJP leader Manoj Tiwari alleged.
“The DMRC is of the view that it will take at least eight months to complete the process after which the Assembly election will be held which will be preceded by the implementation of the model code of conduct. The question is when will Mr. Kejriwal enable women to travel free aboard metro trains and buses,” he said further.
The Congress accused Mr. Kejriwal of making “false statements” to mislead the people in a bid to “gain cheap political mileage” with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly election.
“Instead of fooling the people by promising free metro ride for women, Mr. Kejriwal should initiate steps to introduce free ride for women in DTC buses in Delhi as the DTC is totally under the control of his government,” Congress spokespersons Ramakant Goswami and Jitender Kumar Kochar argued.
“The AAP government is now merely indulging in political gimmicks... the party will not come back to power,” they added.
