BJP To Target 50% Vote Share In Delhi, To Deliver Benefits To Women Like In Other States: Baijayant Panda

Delhi Election 2025: BJP's Baijayant Jay Panda outlined the party's plans for Delhi stating that it aims to expand welfare schemes, provide benefits to women, and address infrastructure issues.

File Photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National Vice President Baijayant Jay Panda

Source : PTI

Delhi Election 2025: Senior BJP leader Baijayant Jay Panda on Tuesday criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a party of frauds while outlining his party's plans for Delhi if it wins the upcoming assembly elections. Panda, the BJP's in-charge for the Delhi Assembly polls, stated that his party would expand the existing welfare schemes and deliver significant benefits to women, following its success in other states.

Speaking to news agency PTI, Panda revealed that the BJP aims to win over 50 per cent of the vote share in Delhi, noting that its assembly vote share has steadily aligned with its higher Lok Sabha share. He also dismissed claims made by Delhi Chief Minister Atishi about BJP candidate Ramesh Bidhuri’s remarks about her family. Panda stressed that the BJP always encourages its members to speak carefully in public while advising Atishi to respond to political questions.

He further remarked, "Her family staunchly supported Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. She has still not distanced herself from this. Her own party insults women. The former chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, who was in jail, has openly described her CM position as a temporary one. This is an insult."

The BJP has long accused Atishi’s father of mobilising support for Afzal Guru, who was later hanged. In return, the AAP has accused the BJP of engaging in diversionary tactics. With the Delhi Assembly elections scheduled for February 5 and the vote counting set for February 8, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the dates earlier on Tuesday.

The BJP poll in-charge also criticised the AAP’s campaign, which focuses on its government’s welfare schemes and promises of Rs 2,100 per month for women and free healthcare for senior citizens. He claimed that if the BJP were to win, it would not only continue the existing welfare programmes but expand them. He pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already announced the continuation of these schemes, dismissing AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's claims that the BJP would halt them as 'propaganda'.

Frequent in his references to AAP as "aapda" (disaster), Panda promised that the BJP would provide corruption-free welfare, citing financial assistance for women in BJP-ruled states like Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, PTI reported. He criticised the AAP government for failing to deliver on similar promises in Punjab, "AAP cheats people. They are frauds. If the AAP government was sincere, it would have begun providing financial assistance to women."

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"The AAP has run Delhi into the ground. For the first time, the Delhi budget is in deficit," the BJP vice president said, accusing the AAP government of corruption scandals worth thousands of crores, including issues in the Delhi Jal Board and the liquor trade. He further criticised the lack of infrastructure development, noting, "The capital of India does not look like the capital of an emerging, growing, aspiring, and influential nation."

"Delhi needs a conflict-free government that will work together with the Centre for its development," he remarked.

He argued that Delhiites deserve a government that prioritises infrastructure, with proper roads, clean water, and accessible healthcare. He called out AAP’s mohalla clinics as "fake" and highlighted the disillusionment of both the poor living in slums and the middle class due to the AAP's false promises. "They have decided to give a chance to the BJP," he asserted.

Responding to Kejriwal's criticism of the BJP for lacking a chief ministerial face, Panda dismissed it as an expression of desperation, adding that Kejriwal had no answers to questions about infrastructure issues like road conditions and water availability.

"The BJP, the Lok Sabha MP noted, has mostly fought on collective leadership in state elections and won them more often than not," he noted.

On the BJP’s candidate list, which included many individuals who joined the party from other political outfits, he clarified that the majority of these candidates had been with the BJP for a long time. He attributed the influx of leaders from various backgrounds to the party’s growth under Modi’s leadership.

The senior leader also expressed confidence about the BJP’s prospects, noting that its vote share in assembly elections had increasingly matched its performance in the Lok Sabha polls. "Our vote share in Delhi for the assembly polls has caught up with the vote share we received in the Lok Sabha elections," he claimed. 

He pointed to the BJP’s unexpected wins in states such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Haryana, and Maharashtra, despite initial skepticism.

Although Panda refrained from giving a specific seat prediction for the 70-member Delhi assembly, he assured that the BJP would secure a "comfortable majority."

Delhi is set to vote on February 5 with vote counting and results slated for February 8.