As the Delhi Assembly elections are around the corner, the political tensions between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party are mounting. During a press meeting today, the Delhi BJP accused the AAP of deceiving the women of Delhi. Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdev accused the AAP of throwing away in garbage the forms filled by women to avail the benefits of AAP’s promised Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana.
Producing a pile of forms in the press meeting, Sachdev said that the filled forms of the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana were handed over by a junk dealer in the Timarpur assembly constituency in Delhi. He said that the junk dealer gave the discarded forms to the BJP candidate from constituency, Surya Prakash Khatri. Sachdev claimed that after the find, BJP workers talked to a few other junk dealers and found forms with all of them. The BJP leader said that the junk dealers had about 30 thousand such forms with annexed copies of supporting documents like PAN cards, Aadhar cards, Voter ID and bank details.
He said that 30 thousand forms were found in just one constituency, and therefore the actual number of such discarded forms will be much higher in the entire Delhi which has 70 constituencies.
Sachdev said that the Aam Aadmi Party compromised the personal details and other confidential information of women who trusted the party’s promises. He said that this information could be misused to access their bank accounts or for any other purposes.
When asked, Virendra Sachdev said that the forms they were displaying in the press conference were originals, not photocopies, as evidenced by original colour passport photos affixed on the forms. He also read out some names and their partial details from the forms.
AAP promised to pay Rs 2100 monthly to women
Last year in December, the Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal promised cash rewards to all the women in Delhi under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana. Confirming that the Yojana was approved by the Delhi cabinet, Kejriwal promised that the Rs. 1000 monthly would be rolled out immediately to all the women and Rs 2100 monthly would be given to all women after his party is voted back to power in Delhi.
The AAP also announced the Sanjeevani Yojana promising free medical and healthcare services to citizens aged above 60. However, the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Government of the NCT of Delhi warned the citizens that no such scheme is in existence at present. In addition to that, the Women and Child Development (WCD) department of the Delhi government issued a clarification regarding the ‘Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana,’ and said no such scheme has been officially notified.
Following the announcement, the AAP began collecting the personal details of the women and senior citizens in Delhi. Thousands of women filled out the forms to avail the benefits under the Yojana. On 25th December, the AAP revealed that around 1.15 million people had already signed up for the said schemes and that around 1,50,000 among them who are senior citizens have signed up for free health care.
Delhi govt said the schemes do not exist
While the AAP leaders and workers were getting people to fill up the forms for ‘Mahila Samman Yojana’ and ‘Sanjeevani Yojana’, the party-run govt in Delhi had issued a clarification in December 2024 saying that such schemes do not exist and they were illegally being propagated among the public. In statements issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department and Women and Child Development Department, it was clarified that the so-called ‘registration forms’ being used for enrolment into the schemes have no official value.
The state govt departments had asked people to not share personal information through fraudulent forms. The statements had said that no official authority has been ordered to collect personal data of the citizens in the name of the fraudulent schemes.
Even after the statements issued by the two departments under the Delhi govt, AAP leaders and workers continued to collect filled-up forms across all 70 constituencies in Delhi. The party workers had even set up camps to register the beneficiaries for the non-existent schemes.
Women protested outside Kejriwal’s residence for not fulfilling the promise
Earlier this month, a group of women from Punjab staged a protest accusing the AAP-led Punjab government of backtracking on the promise of providing Rs 1000 to every woman. “We have come from Amritsar to put forward our matters. Do not cheat the women of Delhi as you did with the women of Punjab, ” a woman told reporters while being detained. “Do not make a promise of Rs 2100 to the women of Delhi”, she said.