BJP sets clock ticking for Delhi polls next year

Union Home Minister Amit Shah's summoning of Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik on Wednesday after the Hauz Qazi communal flare-up has set the political clock ticking for next year's Assembly election in the capital.

The Delhi Police arrested three persons for alleged vandalising a temple in Chawri Bazar but it received flak for allowing the situation to worsen.

Even as the Hauz Qazi incident flared up, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged a Rs 2,000 crore school scam in Delhi, claiming classrooms were constructed at exorbitant prices.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government refuted the allegations saying children from weaker sections were being given the best of facilities for the first time.

The pressure on AAP is being built up even in the Lok Sabha where two BJP MPs slammed the Delhi government for denying benefits of the Modi government's schemes to the people of the city.

Delhi BJP chief and MP from East Delhi Manoj Tewari said that the Centre should find ways to implement the 'Ayushman Bharat' health scheme in the national capital as the AAP government had blocked it.

Pravesh Verma, BJP MP representing South Delhi, said that farmers in the rural belt of the capital were not getting benefits of the central schemes. He also sought the Centre's intervention to introduce these schemes through the Lieutenant Governor.

Within the BJP, there is a view that the party should declare its chief ministerial candidate for Delhi much in advance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi singling out city BJP leader Vijay Goel for his active political work has set off speculation over whether Goel will be considered for leading the party in the Delhi Assembly polls. IANS