Kejriwal alleges BJP demolished several slums in Delhi, now doing ‘jhuggi tourism’

New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday stepped up his attack on the BJP accusing it of resorting to “jhuggi tourism” ahead of the assembly polls due in February despite “demolishing” several slums in the city in recent years.

Addressing AAP’s foundation day function, he said some leaders of the BJP were going to stay with slums dwellers but will return back a year later to demolish them with bulldozers.

The Delhi BJP is launching its “Jhuggi Ratri Pravas Abhiyan” with senior leaders including state president Virendra Sachdeva assigned different slums to stay and interact with people living there.

The BJP which is out of power in Delhi since 1998, is eyeing voters living in the slums, considered staunch votaries of AAP and Kejriwal, through sustained campaigns and outreach programmes.

The party’s night stay campaign will cover 250 slum clusters in the city.

The BJP is doing “jhuggi tourism. People go to Goa on holiday for recreation but the BJP is making fun of the poverty of slum dwellers by staying with them for just one night, Kejriwal charged.

He said the slum dwellers needed to be cautious of those visiting them under ‘jhuggi tourism” and claimed the BJP will return soon with bulldozers to demolish the same slums.

“I want to caution the slum dwellers that beware of those going there today for the night stay. These same people will return one year later to demolish the slums where they stayed,” he charged.

The former Delhi chief minister also alleged that the BJP “demolished many slums in Delhi” and tried to demolish more such dwellings in last 6-7 years but the AAP government stopped them doing it.

He said after resigning as income tax commissioner, he lived with people in Delhi’s slums from 2002 to 2010. He challenged the BJP leaders to stay in the slums for 3-4 months if they had courage, to see the conditions in which people lived there.