In a scathing attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on Thursday, accused the Aam Aadmi Party Government of “step-motherly” treatment to the three erstwhile Delhi civic bodies to which it owed Rs 40,000 crore.

Shah asked Delhiites to choose between the BJP and the AAP in the MCD elections to make the National Capital ‘AAP Nirbhar’ or ‘Atmanirbhar’. Shah came down heavily on the Delhi government, saying the Kejriwal-led party wanted Delhi to be ‘AAP Nirbhar’ while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted the National Capital to be ‘Atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant).

“We will give a reply in a democratic manner to Arvind Kejriwal’s behaviour with MCDs. I believe that we will establish daily waste processing facilities in Delhi by 2025 with the help of the MCD. In future, such heaps and mountains of garbage won’t be seen,” Shah said referring to the Ghazipur landfill at the MCD’s Tehkhand waste-to-energy plant at Tughlakabad in New Delhi.

Speaking at the launch of a waste-to-energy plant in Tehkhand in the Tughlakabad area here in the city, Shah accused the Kejriwal Government of step-motherly treatment and asked why there was a need to merge the various civic bodies into one.

Shah said it happened only because of the step-motherly treatment of the Kejriwal Government to the erstwhile three civic bodies and it owed Rs 40,000 crore to the municipal corporations.

“I want to ask CM Kejriwal why we had to unify the MCDs. A due of Rs 40,000 crore was not paid by the Kejriwal government,” Shah said.

“The AAP government gave step-motherly treatment to MCD and misbehaved with the MCD.”

“We want to assure people that AAP might be in power in Delhi, but in the Centre, we are in power. We will deliver development projects,” Shah asserted.

The Minister said the people of Delhi need to decide if they like the politics of ‘Vigyapan’ (advertisement) or the politics of ‘Vikas’ (development).

“People should also decide if they like ‘prachaar’ (campaign) politics or ‘parivartan’ (change) politics,” the Home Minister added.

The Union Home Ministry recently accepted and notified the final delimitation commission report that was constituted by the Centre following the merger of the three civic bodies into a unified MCD through two notifications issued on October 17, paving the way for holding municipal elections in Delhi. The polls were abruptly cancelled in March when the Centre announced that the three civic bodies in the city will be merged. A unified MCD came into being in May.

The date for polls to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be announced anytime as the Central government on Tuesday ratified the final report of the delimitation committee on redrawing the wards of the civic body.