Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (71) is BJP’s candidate from South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.

Voting in Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats will take place on May 25.

Bidhuri is currently an MLA from the Badarpur Assembly segment and the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

He started his political journey in 1970 as an ABVP member. He was associated with Jana Sangh till 1974 as an active member. He was the Chairman of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation with the rank of Cabinet Minister from 1981-85.

He was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of Delhi in 1993 and since then has been elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly four times. After being elected MLA for the fourth time in 2020, he was elected the Leader of the BJP Legislature Party and became the Leader of the Opposition with the rank of a cabinet minister. Bidhuri was nominated as a member of the National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2013.

In an interview with Nikhil Vyas, Bidhuri talks about the Lok Sabha elections, present political situation in Delhi and other issues.

Excerpts:

Q. What are the BJP’s prospects in the Lok Sabha elections ?

A: BJP is contesting elections on two grounds. One agenda is achievements of the Central Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while the other is ‘development’.

In every department there has been extraordinary progress. Ram temple, new Parliament building, Chandrayaan-3, the G20 summit, Women Reservation Bill and India becoming 5th largest economy are among the key achievements of the Modi government.

Q. What are BJP’s prospects in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections ?

A: The BJP will win all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. In the year 2019, 57 per cent-60 per cent votes were cast. This time, on all seven Lok Sabha seats, more than 70 per cent vote will be cast for the BJP’s candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

I would like to mention that the main issues of the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi is that the Arvind Kejriwal government has failed on all fronts and there are serious corruption charges levelled against the AAP chief and his ministers.

See there are also civic issues in Delhi which need to be addressed immediately.

People are not getting clean water and the public transport system has completely collapsed in the city. A total of 15,000 buses were to be purchased for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), but in the last nine years, not a single DTC bus was purchased by the AAP government.

The DTC was running into Rs 10,000 crore losses.

Another issue I would like to highlight is about the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

When Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister, the Delhi Jal Board was in profit of Rs 600 crore. Today, the Delhi Jal Board faces a loss of Rs 73,000 crore.

Q. What is your opinion on the present political situation in Delhi after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged corruption in the now-scrapped excise policy ?

A: The AAP government has failed on all fronts. There are several corruption charges levelled against the AAP government and Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal had called his excise policy world class in which there is a scam of hundreds of crores of rupees.

In the Assembly, I had asked the Delhi government to withdraw its new liquor policy under which the commission of liquor contractors was increased from 2 per cent to 12 per cent.

The liquor contractors are saying that they have returned 6 per cent to the city government what has come out in the investigation.

Time to sell liquor was till 10 pm at night but the city government extended the time from 10 pm to 3 am in the morning. There was a need to take NOC from the Delhi police but the city government did not take NOC from the Delhi police.

The AAP government violated the master plan and opened liquor shops in the city.

If it was a world-class excise policy then why the AAP government had to take the policy back. I would also like to mention the issue of renovation of Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence.

Arvind Kejriwal constructed ‘rajmahal’ (luxurious residence) while violating all laws and regulations. Neither was the plan approved nor were tender calls made and the trees that were cut, for that also no permissions taken from the competent authority.
Without a tender, crores of rupees of work was allocated.

Q. How do you look at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s education and health model in Delhi?

A: The AAP government claims there is a world-class education model in Delhi.

The AAP government has not opened any new Delhi government college in the last nine years and also there is a shortage of principals, vice-principals and teachers in the city government schools. Then how is it a world-class education model?

Budget of the Delhi government on education has increased two and a half times but the results of Delhi have declined by 14 per cent.

The Delhi Health model has also completely failed. There is a shortage of 75 per cent doctors in the Delhi government hospitals. There is a shortage of CT scan machines at the city government hospitals. No new hospital has been opened by the AAP government in Delhi in the last nine years.

Q. What are the other issues in Delhi that need to be addressed immediately?

A: The AAP government had claimed to transform Delhi’s roads like London and Paris type roads but PWD roads in the city are mostly broken. Another issue is air pollution in the city.

Issues such as the condition of PWD roads and air pollution needs to be addressed.

To solve the traffic problem in the city, the AAP government has said that it will construct many flyovers but no single flyover has been constructed. Only one Ashram underpass has been constructed in the last nine years.

Q. What is your say on the Assembly sessions called by the AAP government?

A: In the Assembly sessions, there are no question hours, no discussions and no short-durations are permitted. The AAP government has made the Legislative assembly a ‘rajnitik akhara’ (political battle field).

As a Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, I primarily raised corruption issues, water issues, condition of hospitals, pollution in the city and issue of public transport in the city.

Q. What are the key issues which would be focused in the South Delhi parliamentary constituency ?

A: A total 69 affluent colonies will be regularised. The traffic system should be improved. The areas of South Delhi which are not connected with the metro, will be connected with it. Focus will be to build schools, parks, stadiums and hospitals on the government lands which are vacant in villages and colonies of Delhi.