Leave alone Modi, even God can’t save BJP in Delhi: Kejriwal

The Narendra Modi factor will hardly help BJP’s fortunes in Delhi, believes Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal who said that “even God can’t save” the saffron party as it seeks to wrest power here.

“BJP ko Delhi mein Bhagwan bhi nahi bacha sakte, toh Modi kya bachapayenge (God can’t save BJP in Delhi, what could Modi do)?” Mr. Kejriwal said during a press interaction in New Delhi.

And, as the political atmosphere hots up in Delhi ahead of the December 4 Assembly elections, Mr. Kejriwal responded to comments by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit that he had no experience of governance saying that neither did she have any prior experience of running a state before coming to power.

But the AAP leader noted that Congress acknowledges he was a “honhar” (capable) candidate.

“Congress has acknowledged that our intentions are clear and that I am ‘honhar’ (talented).

“Ms. Dikshit has said I am ‘honhar’ and, during one of their programmes, Congress MP Dipender Hooda accepted that our intentions were clear,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

Ms. Dikshit had on Sunday said at a rally in the city that although Mr. Kejriwal was “honhar”, he “lacked experience” of governance.

Meanwhile, talking about trade and commerce in the national capital, Mr. Kejriwal alleged that faulty VAT rules here was the reason why some businessmen were moving out of Delhi even as he stressed that business and trade policies should be simplified to ensure growth and employment generation.

“I have been told that Delhi is the biggest wholesale market but, due to complicated VAT policies, many traders have moved out of the city.

“VAT is an extremely complicated issue, it needs to be simplified, only then will businesses grow and employment rise,” he said.

He slammed Delhi government for “extortionist” policies which did not favour traders and were aimed instead at taking money from them.

Emphasising the need for decentralisation to ensure greater participation by common man in governance, he said, “political decentralisation in our manifesto will make us different from other parties. We would be passing Law of Swaraj in Delhi after winning to ensure this.”