Chief of Delhi state

, who is leading the party in the assembly elections, accuses AAP of perception management on various issues like education, water and power without delivering much. Speaking to Atul Mathur, he says BJP has a five-point agenda for the city, and if it gets the mandate, Delhi will get a three-engine government – in state, Centre and corporations

What is the BJP’s agenda for the upcoming polls?

Delhi government claims it is giving potable water to every household.

Why do you think the water being supplied is not clean?

When you say BJP will give five times of what the AAP government is giving, what exactly do you mean? And what are your views on giving freebies?

In principle, are you in favour of giving freebies?

CAA has become a major election plank for BJP. How is it relevant to assembly polls?

But won’t BJP benefit from any polarisation of voters?

AAP says giving ownership rights in unauthorised colonies is a big fraud as land use has not been changed.

Don’t you think people will judge BJP on the basis of the performance of civic bodies where corruption is rampant?

Do you think there has been some improvement in Delhi government schools?

The youth is restless and coming out on the streets. You are a relatively young leader and an artiste at heart. What would be your message to them?

Kejriwal wants police under him to control the law and order situation.

Delhi BJP has too many leaders. How will you solve the leadership problem when it comes to choosing the CM if BJP wins?

How many seats is the BJP going to win?

We are working on a five-point agenda. First point is providing drinking water through tap. We have set a three-and-half-year deadline for that and have a plan ready. The second is to reduce air pollution by 70%. We have seen many cities, like Beijing, coming out of a dangerous situation. The government should have put more focus on the issue which unfortunately didn’t happen.Our third priority is the Yamuna. Amit Shah ji has mentioned this in his speeches. We want to develop a riverfront on the lines of Sabarmati. There will be a separate channel for drains, and sewage won’t be allowed to enter the river. A new dam, on the lines of Sardar Sarovar project, will be constructed at Okhla and a reservoir created. The river will also have 20-25ft of water, which will help in its conservation.Our fourth target is to improve Delhi’s public transport and fifth is to work on healthcare. We want to give the below poverty line section free treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh every year, which the AAP government has not allowed. Hospitals in Delhi are closing down. Instead of improving dispensaries, the AAP government has destroyed them.We also want to give pucca houses to homeless under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which Delhi government has not implemented. They want it to be renamed as Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana.Water samples in Delhi were tested by BIS but the AAP government said the agency was lying in its report. You can accuse BJP of lying but can you come with us on the streets and say with conviction that the water being supplied by Delhi Jal Board is clean? I went to Shashi Garden in Patparganj (constituency of deputy CM Manish Sisodia) where an elderly woman almost held me by my collar for supply of contaminated water.The water is not clean because the old pipelines are broken and sewage mixes with drinking water. The chief minister has in his own townhall programmes admitted that there was water contamination at some places. Delhi government is giving 20,000 litres of water free every month, which is a good thing. But DJB has to bear a loss of about Rs 800 crore — earlier, it had a profit of Rs 600 crore and now it is showing a loss of Rs 168 crore. We have got this information through RTI. When you cannot check losses, how will you replace broken pipelines? They are not able to pay salaries to DJB employees. With these announcements, the AAP government has created a perception but destroyed the organisation. We will not only continue giving subsidy on electricity and water, but also ensure that these losses are reduced.We are talking about giving five times the benefits being given by the AAP government and not five times the subsidy. BJP had also promised to give 30% relief on electricity bills in 2015. If you look back, the AAP government has not given as much relief as promised by BJP. They had said electricity bills would be halved but within 15 days they took a U-turn and gave 50% subsidy on consumption of up to 400 units only. They had said water will be free. They, once again, made a U-turn after forming the government and said only 20,000 litres will be free. They increased fixed charges on electricity connections and collected Rs 9,000 crore from consumers. When elections approached, the fixed charges were reversed. Just two months before the polls, they made 200 units free. From the amount of Rs 9,000 crore they had collected, only Rs 400 crore was spent on free electricity. They don’t have any plan to give free electricity. No such notification has been issued till date. The order issued by the power department says consumers will get free electricity only till March 31. It is just an election gimmick. Some people are still getting power bills despite consuming less than 200 units of electricity.You can give relief on electricity. In BJP-run states, we are giving cheaper electricity to factories and household industries. The power tariff for industrial connections in Delhi is three times more than Uttar Pradesh. If you consume even one unit over 400, you will have to pay 1.5 times of the bill. We will streamline this system so that the benefit reaches every section of society. The power tariff of industrial connections will also be rationalised.Everybody knows now that CAA has nothing to do with Indian citizens. But Congress and AAP misled people and incited violence in the name of CAA and Delhi will teach them a lesson for this. Delhi wants a safe city to live in but the opposition parties caused violence in New Friends Colony, Jamia, Jaffrabad and Seelampur.I don’t understand polarisation of voters but people have got the message that for BJP, keeping society safe from violence is a priority. Everybody wants acts of violence and rioting to be dealt with strictly. Our government in UP took strong decisions and no rioter came on street the second day. But in Delhi, the state government openly supported such acts. What is more dangerous is the fact that the state government distributed Rs 5 lakh among rioters. The government gave cheques to those who spread violence, burnt buses and got injured in police action. This stand of the local government to support violence is going to hurt it badly in upcoming elections.The main motive of regularising unauthorised colonies was to give ownership rights to people. Regularisation of colonies was a precondition for conferring ownership rights for which a proper layout plan has been prepared for each colony with space earmarked for parks, roads and community centres. That’s why we changed the law and removed the precondition of regularisation to give ownership rights. I believe in the next 5-7 years, after the redevelopment works starts, these colonies will be the most developed areas in Delhi. This is their frustration over what they could not do but the Modi government managed to do.They will indeed judge us on the performance of the corporations. Delhi government is either visionless or is intentionally harassing people. We asked Kejriwal, who has stolen Rs 20,000 crore of the corporations? This is due from Delhi government, which has not been paid, and even the court has said this. Stopping the corporations’ funds and then saying, see the civic bodies have not performed, is what they have been doing. That is why we are saying that one vote this time will bring a triple engine government to power. We are indeed struggling with the problem of corruption and have made several efforts to end it. We have made our system 90% digital.There has been improvement in eight of 1,000 schools, which have been developed as a ‘sample’ by the AAP government. I got a reality check of Delhi government schools done and found the conditions really bad. The buildings are dilapidated, toilets are not functional and roofs may collapse any time. They have just tried to create a false perception about education. In the past five years, five lakh students of Class IX have failed and dropped out. The result of Class X has gone down by 20%.I want to tell them that before joining a protest, please understand the issue first. You are future of our country but have often been misled. I saw a girl raising azaadi slogans on JNU campus. When somebody asked her from what do you want freedom from, she said BJP. It was clearly a political protest. The Left and Congress would obviously want freedom from BJP. I called 500-600 Muslims to my house and some youngsters also came. When I told them that NRC was not even planned and CAA had nothing to do with Indians, they accepted they had been misled.Kejriwal is among those people who have a ‘vikrit maansikta’ (deformed mentality). We have seen a similar case in Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. If such people get police in their control, they can prove to be very cruel rulers. Kejriwal could have been one of them.Since I became president of the state BJP, things have improved and I have got support from everyone. Though people still say there is factionalism in the party. We have a parliamentary board which will make the announcement at the right time.I think we will get 45-50 seats. We have a good chance of forming the government.