Taking a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party before the MCD polls next years, the Delhi BJP Sunday distributed the snakes and ladders board game to children living in slums — with snakes being replaced by the faces of Delhi’s ministers, including the CM and Deputy CM. The AAP hit back, saying the BJP has run out of issues to raise.
The BJP said the games have been distributed to people living in Kusum Pahadi, Jai Hind and JJ Bandhu camps near Vasant Vihar by Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta during his ongoing ‘jhuggi samman yatra’ — a bid by BJP leaders to woo slum dwellers.
Boxes near the ‘snakes’ also have ‘DTC scam’, ‘education scam’, ‘ration scam’ and ‘Delhi Jal Board scam’ written on them. The ‘ladders’, on the other hand, have central government schemes like Jan Dhan Yojna, Mudra Loan Scheme, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Swacch Bharat etc.
Gupta said, “People of all age groups play the game… Since it is popular, people should also know how central government schemes are benefiting children.” When asked about children being involved in politics, he said, “Even adults play ludo and children also have the right to know about what’s happening.”
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said 1 lakh such charts have been published and the party will distribute these in jhuggis: “The idea is to show central government schemes as stairs of development while AAP schemes have been compared with snakes as it is only biting the poor… The idea is that the chart will make deceptions of the Kejriwal government a topic of discussion among the slum dwellers.”
Hitting out at the BJP, the AAP in a statement said: “BJP in Delhi is in a pitiable condition and doesn’t have any issues left to raise. People should take the board game and play. There are 6 million houses in Delhi and they should distribute it to everyone.”
Civic polls are likely to be held in April next year.
Delhi has roughly 30 lakh people living in 675 slum clusters. A large chunk of slum dwellers had traditionally voted for the Congress but switched to AAP in the 2013 and 2015 Assembly polls. Since then, the free electricity and water schemes of AAP had led to this section voting largely for AAP during the Vidhan Sabha polls. The BJP, with the yatra, wants to make a dent in this vote bank.