'Meenakshi Lekhi Kabhi Nahi Dekhi' echoing in New Delhi, says AAP candidate

AAP candidate Brijesh Goyal said voters of today are seeing 'who is accessible, approachable and available' and that is what is going against Lekhi

Her "inaccessibility and unavailability to voters" in New Delhi constituency has given rise to the slogan "Meenakshi Lekhi Kabhi Nahi Dekhi," rival AAP candidate Brijesh Goyal alleged.

Goyal is locked in a three-way battle with Lekhi and Congress nominee former Union Minister Ajay Maken in the high-profile constituency.

In an interview to PTI, Goyal said voters of today are seeing "who is accessible, approachable and available" and that is what is going against Lekhi.

"I have covered more than 70 per cent area in my constituency. Being there for them is my power. My plus point is that I meet my voters and that is what is going against Meenakshi Lekhi," he said.

He claimed her "inaccessiblity and unavailability" to voters has given rise to the slogan of "Meenakshi Lekhi Kabhi Nahi Dekhi" and is the main cause of anti-incumbency in the constituency.

"Wherever I visited in my constituency in last six months I saw a very strong anti-incumbency with slogan of Meenakshi Lekhi Kabhi Nahi Dekhi. Over sealing, Lekhi tells people what can I do and people are very angry with her over it," he said.  The New Delhi seat is a high profile constituency with a total 1,490,147 voters. It has a number of government offices and is not dominated by any particularly caste or community.

Goyal, a businessman, said it is a good thing that an alliance was not formed with Congress as it is not even in "competition" in the national capital.

"Congress will get below 10 per cent vote and it is a good thing that an alliance was not formed with it in the national capital," he asserted.  "I can see one-sided victory for the AAP. Even Maken had said that he would fight only if an alliance is formed and he had a tiff with Sheila Dikshit (senior Congress leader and former Delhi chief minister) over this too. So he has already accepted his defeat," Goyal said.

Goyal said the biggest issue plaguing his constituency is sealing of shops.

"About 90 per cent of sealing done in Delhi is in the New Delhi constituency. Issue of pension of retired government employees, around 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh such employees are residents of New Delhi. Parking is another issue in Delhi and building multi-storey parking is another demand of the people of this constituency," he said.

Goyal said other issues are lack of women safety, water shortage in NDMC areas and unemployment. There are 40 big villages in the constituency and there is no community centre there which is also an another issue.

He said right now the issue at hand is sealing, but the "downfall of business" for the trader community started after demonetisation and an year after GST was another big challenge for traders.  "Indian economy is a cash dominated economy which cannot be digitised overnight. You can't make Delhi Paris overnight. Digitisation needs to be done in an organised manner," he said.

The sealing drive in Delhi is being carried out by the BJP-led MCDs on the directions of a Supreme Court-appointed committee since December 2017.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has claimed on numerous occasions that he would end all the sealing in 24 hours if Delhi gets full statehood - the AAP's primary poll plank.

Ahead of the May 12 polls in the national capital, both the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress have promised to "end" the sealing drive.

Goel said if he gets elected, he would "forcefully" put forward the issue of sealing in Delhi and seek corporation from other MPs to end the drive.