Choose between 'AAP Nirbhar' and Atmanirbhar, says Amit Shah ahead of MCD polls

Mr. Shah also assured that the BJP will be ready with a plan to make Delhi garbage-free.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party wanted Delhi to be 'AAP Nirbhar' while the BJP wanted the national capital to be Atmanirbhar, and asked the people to choose between the two in the MCD elections.

At the launch of a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Tehkhand here, Mr. Shah also accused the Kejriwal government of step-motherly treatment to the erstwhile three civic bodies and said it owed ₹40,000 crore to the municipal corporations.

"They (Kejriwal-led party) want Delhi to be AAP Nirbhar. We want it to become Atmanirbhar. In the next Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls, people will have to decide if they want to be AAP Nirbhar or Atmanirbhar," Mr. Shah said at the event in south Delhi.

Alleging that the AAP government had been spending heavily on publicity, he claimed Mr. Kejriwal was under the impression that development comes from advertisements, but said "this illusion can last only for five to seven years".

"People will have to choose between 'Vigyapan ki Rajniti' (politics of advertisement) and 'Vikas ki Rajniti' (politics of development)," he added.

Mr. Shah also assured that the BJP will be ready with a plan to make Delhi garbage-free by the time MCD elections are held and that the city will be in a position to process 100% of its daily waste by 2025.

With completion of the delimitation process to alter wards under MCD limits and the with Centre's approval for the final draft, the last hurdle to hold the civic body polls has been cleared.