The people of Delhi know AAP is fighting for them

DELHI CHIEF MINISTER

- Somya Lakhani and Alok KN Mishra

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Atishi is confident that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will return to power in the Capital. In an interview, she spoke of her attempt to bring governance back on track after Arvind Kejriwal's arrest last year, her learnings as a CM in the last four months, and the state government vs LG standoff.

Edited excerpts:

The AAP has been in power for 10 years. Isn't it facing anti-incumbency in Delhi?

Ten years is definitely a long time, but there is a very large section of people in society whose lives have been fundamentally transformed by the AAP government in Delhi.

To understand the popularity of Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, you have to understand how deeply divided Delhi has always been. There are parts of Delhi that have always had decent facilities, but that was not the case for people in unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters. Earlier, the government budget was not spent on these areas.

DDA has been a complete failure. There is no planned housing, no low-cost housing available for migrants who come to Delhi. So, a lot of migrants stay in JJ clusters or unauthorised colonies. A large number of people in Delhi were living in hell. It was DDA's job to create these colonies, provide proper water supply, build roads and drains, but that work in the last 10 years has been done by the Kejriwal government.

A decade ago, a woman from a slum would spend a good part of her day waiting for a water tanker. Now, she has water coming in a pipeline at her doorstep. This is not something she is going to forget in 10 years. Think of a lower middle-class family who didn't have money to send all their children to private schools. They have seen the transformation. There was a time Delhi had "tent wala schools" (school in a tent).

Recently, I asked a Class 8 student which school he goes to, and he said, "building wala school," and then he said, "now all schools have buildings".