Q: The use of EVMs has become a big issue and you have even sought postponement of the civic polls so that VVPAT could be used. Do you seriously think the corporation elections will be rigged?

Q: Why are you raising doubts over EVMs now?

Q: Do you still stand by your accusation that EC is acting like Dhritarashtra who wants Duryodhana or BJP to win?

Q: You are questioning the impartiality of ECI. In this backdrop, what do you think is going to be the outcome in the office-of-profit case? Are you apprehensive that the EC will rule against AAP?

Q: Now that you are sending all files for approval to the LG, has decision-making become easy or are there projects still on hold?

Q: Your interaction with LG Anil Baijal has been very different from your dealings with Najeeb Jung. You have not publicly taken him on.

Q: You have promised to do away with house tax on residential properties if your party wins. Aren’t you resorting to the politics of subsidies?

Q: You are talking of corruption in MCD but your campaign has not adequately focused on all that BJP has not done?

Q: The recent CVC report must have given you a lot of satisfaction. Considering the fact that ACB was not in your control, how was this achieved?

Q: You are no longer attacking Narendra Modi.

Q: Congress appears to be stronger than in 2015. Does that worry you?

Q: What about the AAP debacle in Rajouri Garden. Booth-wise results there show a shift in voters from AAP?

Q: Jarnail Singh has said that deep and honest introspection is required. He was referring to choice of candidates?

Q: Will these polls be a referendum on your government?

Q: Is there some restlessness among senior functionaries of your party? Do you feel a sense of crisis?

Faced with a determined BJP and a resurgent Congress, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tells TOI that only AAP can rid the corporations of corruption, raises questions over use of EVMs and impartiality of election commissioners and accuses LG Anil Baijal of unfair leaks.A: There are just three or four countries in the world that use EVMs for national level elections. The rest of the world uses ballot papers. Germany used EVMs and then moved back to ballot papers. US switched to EVMs for two years and then went back to ballot papers. The experience of most of the world has been that the hardware and software can be easily tampered with. So, it is wrong to say that the EVMs are tamper-proof. They ask how is it possible to influence such a huge administrative machinery involved in the election process. Two companies make EVMs. They are ECIL and BEL. These two in turn import chips from two companies – Renesas, which is Japanese, and Microchips Technologies which is based in US. They say the code is put in the chips by BEL. They put the software in the chip, seal it and send it. They claim that neither can it be seen, nor read. We asked that when the chip comes here, do you check what software has been put by the companies. To this, in an RTI reply to different people, ECI has said that this software cannot be checked as it is masked. All that is needed is to introduce a small bug in these machines...A: In the past four months, many developments have put a question mark over the reliability of EVMs. In Pune, an independent candidate got zero votes and he wondered where did his own vote and those of his family go. An investigation is needed. In Bhind it happened before so many journalists. There, whichever button was being pressed, the machine was voting for BJP. That is not malfunctioning, that is programming the machine in a manner that it will vote only for BJP. Something did happen to that machine. Was the motherboard changed? Was the chip changed? What happened? Two days later, ECI said the machine was fine. How? Next, questions were raised on 18 EVMs in Dhaulpur where on pressing the button, the vote was going to BJP. This means that the software of many machines has already been changed.A: The reason for saying that is the fact that it is EC’s responsibility to instill confidence in the minds of the people of this country about the election process being fair. So, whenever a question is raised on EVMs, EC should get an investigation done and put the findings in public domain. What they are doing instead is saying that they have found the machines to be fine.A: There is a big question mark over EC. One of the election commissioners, A K Joti, was chief secretary of Gujarat under Modiji. After retirement, he was made chairman of Kandla Port Trust. So, he has worked with the Prime Minister for many years. The second election commissioner has come from Madhya Pradesh and has been very close to Shivraj Singh Chauhan. So, independence of both these election commissioners is under question. The only independent person is Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi, who is retiring in two months.A: All files are being sent to LG and everything is on hold. There are a lot of things that are not moving. For instance, there was a project for making 10 elevated corridors. That file is pending with the LG’s office for one year. Similarly, we had said that we would redesign 10 roads on a pilot basis to end bottlenecks. The file for the architect’s appointment is pending with the LG’s office. Everything is going there and getting stuck. I now meet the LG regularly, every Wednesday, and seek approval for these files. He says he is studying it, looking at itA: We have no personal enmity with anyone. With this LG, the first three months were very well and we were able to explain our point of view over two-three meetings. But, just before these elections, the way the LG’s office started attacking us was not healthy. The files relating to Rs 97 crore spent on advertisements and Ram Jethmalani’s fee were leaked to the media. The issue of a Rs 15,000 thali was also leaked though nothing had been paid. So, it appears that the LG’s office is an active party in this election. We are not countering all this aggressively because we don’t want to make any enemies. To be able to work for people, we are prepared to bend as much as we need to. If we fight, it will be only for the rights and welfare of people.A: The money belongs to people and all I am doing is returning your money to you. Should you be happy or angry? I repeat that there is no dearth of money in government, it is all about intention. I can streamline the house tax system but if my assessment shows that it is not required, then why not do away with it for residential properties? We reduced VAT from 12% to 5%. South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s total budget is Rs 3300 crore; the house tax component is only Rs 300 crore. This is not very significant but people face a lot of harassment in paying the tax. There is so much corruption in MCD. A CAG report shows that Rs 1960 crore worth of pension was given to dead people over 10 years. The corporations also have 40,000 ghost employees on their payrolls. There are illegal hoardings, illegal parking. If all this is taken care of, so much money will be saved. We are saying that we will clean Delhi and make the city shine in one year. Cleaning Delhi is not rocket science. You need to float an international global tender. There are so many companies that work on sanitation in European countries. They can be hired to get your city cleaned. The corporations waste so much money on lifting and disposing of garbage.A: When the MCD campaign started, these people started leaking files to the media on a daily basis through the LG’s office and shifted the entire focus on us. Because of this, MCD could not be discussed much. Now our focus is only on one thing -- that if you want to clean Delhi, if you want to remove garbage and mosquitoes from Delhi, only AAP can do it. We are saying that in Delhi government, we practically have four major departments -- water, power, education and health. In all these sectors, we have delivered and now we are saying we will make a difference in sanitation.A: Corruption has gone down as a result of technology and computerization. In departments like transport, human interaction has been reduced in a big way by doing away with manual processes. At the SDM office earlier, people would take a token and wait as the processes were manual, but now everything is online. One, technology is very important for reducing human interaction for dealing with corruption. Second is deterrence which is where Anti-Corruption Branch has a big role, but that was taken away from our government. Technology also brings transparency. The maximum effect of all this is visible in the departments of transport, revenue and health. For instance, EWS admissions and all processes in mohalla clinics and polyclinics have been made online. Theft of medicines is almost impossible now.A: We have always done issue-based politics. We supported Swachh Bharat Mission and the yoga initiative but opposed demonetization because we think that was wrong.A: We are not worried. Our surveys show Congress is a distant third.A: There was a lot of anger among people over our decision to move out Jarnail Singh to fight the polls in Punjab. We sensed the anger a fortnight before the poll. Our door-to-door survey teams gave us the feedback.A: Whenever a candidate is given a ticket, four people are denied. We are very clear that we will not compromise on four Cs -- communalism, corruption, crime and character. If anyone has any complaint on these grounds, they can come and object but things like this one was better and that one could have won are points of analysis. The party’s PAC does that assessment.A: We say compare the two years of Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and 10 years of BJP in the municipal corporations. We want to ask if BJP has done one good thing in 10 years that people remember. Woh badmaash hain, woh nikkame hain, woh bhrashtachari hain, so don’t vote for them. See our performance in Delhi for over two years and vote for us. I feel that if the polls are fair and EVMs are not tampered with, then AAP will get more than 200 seats. I would appeal to people to come and vote in large numbers so that the eight to nine per cent shift they may try to do through EVMs will get compensated by way of high voting.A: There is nothing like that. I feel overall the crisis before the country is more serious. This game over EVMs that they have started. If this is way they will win elections, there will be no meaning left in the electoral process and democracy. The other big concern is the way violence is happening in society…not just physical violence….the atmosphere of fear that is taking shape is dangerous. If you write or speak anything contrary to the views of the government, then first you will be attacked with abusive language on social media, on phone or through sms. Then fake cases will be slapped, income tax will be unleashed on you…this atmosphere of fear is very dangerous.