A confident Sheila Dikshit is ready for a fourth term in the hot seat in Delhi. Dismissive of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenge, Dikshit said she would like to comment only on “serious’ candidates. In an exclusive interview to Zee Media’s #bbv Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, the 75-year old politician declared “she would work until she found the zeal in her” to serve the people of Delhi. Conscious, however, of the anti-incumbency factor, she said she wanted to reach to the people and clear all the allegations put forward by her opposition parties.
Zee Research Group/New Delhi
Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, who has led the party to a record three consecutive electoral victories in Delhi, said that she is not “very stressed” regarding the upcoming assembly elections and “for the fourth time we go with the confidence we shall win.”
On being asked what her agenda for the assembly elections 2013 is, she replied that she would now plan for the future and would like to make Delhi more developed. “I would like to make Delhi a knowledge city, clean service city and a city which tracks people. I would like to double the average annual income of a person in Delhi which is Rupees two lakh at present,” declared Dikshit.
Unveiling her plan of action, she said, “I would also make Double Decker flyovers and would like to make Delhi NCR into a common developed economic zone which has equality.”
“I would also want to have a kind of coordinated single kind of command in Delhi, said Dikshit. Asked as to why she had not been able to so far push her own party at the centre for greater freedom to act in Delhi, Dikshit defended her party saying “there is need for a constitutional change. We will do it once we come to power.”
On being asked by Zee News editor, Sudhir Chaudhary, whether she considered Arvind Kejriwal a threat, she was quick to reply that she did not consider him to be a threat in this election. She said that one can comment on established political parties and politicians but not on someone who is very new to this profession. She also made light of his challenge daring her to an open debate saying “where and when? I read about it only in the media.”
Asked as to why Delhi had turned the rape capital during her rule, she shot back asking “what about Madhya Pradesh.” She was at pains to list out her government’s efforts to improve the safety level for women. “Fast track courts have been established. A helpline 181 has been set up and since the time of its inception until today, the helpline has registered 4.5 lakh calls.”
She argued that rape incidents in Delhi got highlighted more and hence it appeared to be the rape capital which it actually was not.
She stuck to her party line on opinion polls. “I don’t take these opinion polls seriously. They do not have a basis. Neither have the candidates been yet announced nor the manifestos released.”
She skillfully evaded questions on NaMo Versus RaGa. She said that she would not like to comment on Narendra Modi. Asked if she was scared of Modi campaigning for BJP in Delhi, she said that if he was coming to support his party for Delhi Assembly elections she was perfectly fine with it.
Dikshit further added that she would not like to comment on whether Rahul Gandhi should have or must have become the Prime Minister of India by now. She said that the people of India will “decide” on this. “He is a good and modern boy (balak)”. The Delhi CM defended young Gandhi’s emotional (family sacrifices) pitch in his recent speeches arguing “whatever he says is a fact”.
(Watch BBV show ‘Zara Hat Ke’ at 10 pm every Tuesday)
