Former Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken on Monday castigated party leader Milind Deora for praising the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government for doubling its revenue, asking him to leave the party and “propagate half-baked facts”.
On Sunday, Deora praised Kejriwal after he was sworn in as the Delhi chief minister for the third straight term. “Sharing a lesser-known and welcome fact the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government doubled its revenues to Rs 60,000 crore and maintained a revenue surplus over the last 5 years,” the former Mumbai Congress chief tweeted. “Food for thought: Delhi is now one of India’s most fiscally prudent governments.”
Maken hit out at Deora for his comments and referred to compound annual growth rate figures to criticise him. “Brother, you want to leave INC India-please do-then propagate half baked facts,” he said in a tweet.
He compared the revenue generation from 1997-’98 onwards and said that during the Congress rule in 2013-’14 the revenue was Rs 37,459 crore, which grew at 14.87%. Maken said this has come down to Rs 60,000 crore in 2019-’20, a growth rate of only 9.90%.
Replying to this, Deora said he would not undermine Sheila Dikshit’s “stellar performance” as the Delhi chief minister. “That’s your specialty,” he added. “But it’s never too late to change! Instead of advocating an alliance with AAP, if only you had highlighted Sheila ji’s achievements, INC India would’ve been in power today.”
Sheila Dikshit served as Delhi’s chief minister for 15 years from 1998 to 2013. She died in July last year at the age of 81.
Maken had advocated an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi ahead of last year’s Lok Sabha elections and was willing to give up his candidature from the New Delhi seat if it worked. Maken represented the New Delhi constituency twice in the Lok Sabha.
The Aam Aadmi Party swept the Assembly polls last week, winning 62 seats, to secure a third consecutive term in the national Capital. Its primary opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, won only eight seats but was able to increase its vote share from 32% to 38.51%.
The Congress replicated its poor performance from the 2015 Assembly elections with its vote share shrinking below 5%. At least 63 Congress candidates lost their deposits after the results were declared.
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