PM labels AAP as ‘AAPda, Kejriwal hits back

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took a swipe at former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, referring to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government as an "AAPda" (disaster) that has gripped Delhi for the past decade.

- AIMAN FATIMA

Ahead of Assembly polls in Delhi, PM Modi accused the AAP leadership of pushing Delhi into a crisis and claimed their governance was defined by corruption and mismanagement.

"In the last 10 years, Delhi has been surrounded by an 'AAPda'. AAP has descended as a calamity on Delhi. I could have built a 'sheesh mahal' (glass palace) too, but I chose to build more than 4 crore homes for the poor," PM Modi said, alluding to recent allegations of exorbitant expenditures on the Delhi Chief Minister's residence.

He was speaking at a ceremony inaugurating 1,675 flats for residents of slum clusters and two major urban redevelopment projects in the national capital.

He hit out at the AAP-led city government and said the situation in the national capital would worsen.

If its reign continued. He accused the AAP government of committing corruption in a host of sectors ranging from school education to fighting pollution and the liquor trade.

Giving a call for AAP’s defeat in the coming elections, Modi raised the slogan, “’AAPda’ ko nahi sahenge, badal kar rahenge (we will not tolerate ‘AAPda’, we will remove it).”