Mounting yet another assault, AAP MLA Vinod Kumar Binny on Thursday accused the party of “cheating” the people of Delhi by backtracking on its election promises and called Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a “dictator“.
The Laxmi Nagar MLA, who was sulking after being left out of the Cabinet last month, addressed a press conference where he slammed the leadership on a range of issues and said taking support of Congress to form the government was a “compromise of the party’s principles“.
“We had announced publicly that we wouldn’t give or take support of any political party. Then what prompted the party to change the decision. Discussions were held behind closed doors on the issue,” Mr. Binny said, attacking AAP for forming the government with Congress backing.
“You (Kejriwal) have become a dictator. Stop fooling the people of Delhi. All decisions in the party are taken in closed rooms by four-five people. Arvind gets angry if people express any differences with him. If anyone speaks against him, he starts shouting,” Mr. Binny said.
The 39-year-old-MLA said the party has “forgotten” its ideologies and become “an opportunist outfit” after coming to power.
“They are using policy of use and throw. First, they have used Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi and still many people in the party are being exploited,” he said.
Mr. Binny said though the party during the election campaign had promised to provide 700 litres of free water to each household, the government “very cleverly” announced that those exceeding the limit will have to pay for the full amount.
On the electricity front, Mr. Binny said that the government “defrauded” the people of Delhi as the party had promised to halve the bills after coming to power.
“The government said subsidy will be given to those whose monthly consumption does not exceed 400 units. This is totally unacceptable. The party has cheated the people of Delhi,” he said.
The MLA said he will go on a strike if the promises made to people during the election campaign are not fulfilled by January 27.
He also attacked the Ministers of the Delhi government, maintaining though they had said they wouldn’t use red beacon cars, they have all taken big cars with VIP registration numbers.
Referring to the alleged gangrape of a Danish woman, he said had another party been in power, then AAP would have held massive protests in the city to target the government of the day.
“What have they done to protect the women in Delhi?” he asked.
The MLA also questioned the process for ticket distribution for the Lok Sabha polls and alleged that there was no transparency in it.
“The party is drifting away from the issues on the basis of which it came to power. It is deviating from its principles,” he said.
The MLA alleged that Mr. Kejriwal shares a “close friendship” with Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit and many of the government decisions were influenced by leaders of Congress.
Rubbishing the MLA’s criticism, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Wednesday said that Mr. Binny had come to him for ministership and later he wanted to contest the Lok Sabha polls.
The MLA termed as “complete lie” Kejriwal’s statement that he was seeking a Lok Sabha ticket.
“I am an honest soldier of this party. I will not leave the party,” he said.
Terming his criticism of the government and the party as a “fight for the truth”, Mr. Binny said AAP was not formed to grab power or make anybody the chief minister.
“The party has misled the people of Delhi on a number of issues. There is a big mismatch between what the party promised and what the government is doing,” he said.
Mr. Binny also attacked the AAP leadership for failing to bring the Jan Lokpal Bill within 14 days of coming to power as promised.
“AAP came into power on December 28. Today, it has been 19 days,” he said.
He also trained his guns on Mr. Kejriwal, saying he was forced to not move to a sprawling flat following criticism by the people.
“He would definitely have moved to the flat if there was no opposition to it by the people,” he said.
