Gautam Gambhir spoke to NDTV during campaigning for Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections
Former India cricketer and BJP MP from East Delhi, Gautam Gambhir, today took a swipe at Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying: "Please ask Arvind Kejriwal what happened to his promise of turning Delhi into a London, Paris or New York?"
Speaking to NDTV during his party's campaign for the forthcoming elections to Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the BJP parliamentarian alleged that it is not him but the Delhi Chief Minister who has been shying away from issues of governance.
The BJP MP claimed that for the last eight years, AAP has only been making false promises to the people of Delhi. "We are reaching out to the people, trying to make them aware of the fact that they have been cheated for eight years," he said.
He claimed that unlike AAP, the BJP does not spend thousands of crores on false publicity and media blitz.
Asked to comment on the Ghazipur landfill, which is now a major issue in the MCD elections, Mr Gambhir told NDTV: "I'd like to request you and your crew to visit the Ghazipur landfill, see for yourself what the ground reality is and report the truth. Let the people of Delhi know the truth."
He further alleged: "For eight years, the media has only been focusing on the falsehood peddled by Arvind Kejriwal. It took him eight years to visit the Ghazipur landfill. Why didn't he visit it earlier?"
He further said that he had written to the Delhi CM in 2020, proposing a joint visit to the landfill. "He never responded to my letter," Mr Gambhir alleged.
Responding to a query on AAP allegations of "doctored" videos being propagated by the BJP about AAP leaders like Satyendar Jain, Mr Gambhir said: "I don't believe in the politics of allegations and counter-allegations. That's not my kind of politics and that's not the reason why I'm in politics. I have never made false promises to the people of Delhi, unlike the lies being propagated by AAP for the last eight years."
He added: "What happened to all those promises of building 100 schools, colleges, hospitals, flyovers in Delhi? Why don't you go and ask Arvind Kejriwal about his promise of transforming Delhi into a Paris, London or New York?"
Asked to comment on Mr Kejriwal's allegation that Mr Gambhir is always busy with his commitments as a cricket commentator and hardly ever visits his constituency, BJP's East Delhi MP retorted that when schools were closed due to pollution, where was the Chief Minister? He was busy campaigning in Gujarat and Himachal, he said. "Where was he when Delhi was waterlogged," he asked.
Taking a swipe at the Delhi CM, Mr Gambhir said "Publicity Minister, and not Chief Minister, is a designation befitting Arvind Kejriwal".