New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party – eager to get going with its first Delhi government in nearly three decades – ran into a bit of a roadblock Thursday after the Chief Minister’s X account, @CMODelhi, was suddenly renamed @KejriwalAtWork, and then wiped clean and deleted from the social media platform.
Furious, the party demanded Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s intervention.
The BJP’s Delhi boss, Virendra Sachdeva, ripped into the outgoing Aam Aadmi Party over “the plunder of (the) Delhi Government’s digital resources by former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal”.
“It is unfortunate that after the defeat of the government of Arvind Kejriwal and Atishi, today, on the orders of the caretaker Chief Minister (Atishi), the (account) of ‘CMO Delhi’ has been made the personal (account) of Arvind Kejriwal. Sir, this is a case of digital loot by the government, and it needs to be investigated,” he raged, tagging both Mr Kejriwal and Ms Atishi’s own X handles.
आदरणीय @LtGovDelhi
मैं आपका ध्यान पूर्व मुख्य मंत्री @ArvindKejriwal द्वारा की गई दिल्ली सरकार की डिजिटल संसाधन की लूट की ओर आकृष्ट करना चाहता हूं।
मान्यवर दिल्ली में सरकारी पैसे एवं संसाधनों से करीब एक दशक पहले एक ट्विटर हैंडल (अब एक्स पोस्ट) बनाया गया था जिसका नाम था… pic.twitter.com/v4T6CYxPls
— Virendraa Sachdeva (@Virend_Sachdeva) February 13, 2025
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that after his corrupt government collapsed, Kejriwal became a digital looter,” he said, “By orchestrating this digital heist, he misused government resources and compromised people’s private information, for which he must face legal action.”
Mr Sachdeva continued, on his own X handle, “During his ten years in power, he committed numerous scams ranging from ration card to ‘sheeshmahal‘ and from auto permit to liquor, but the new digital loot is unprecedented… hardly any outgoing Chief Minister would have done something like this.”
अरविंद केजरीवाल द्वारा सरकारी पैसे से बने, बढ़े और पहचान बनाने वाले एक्स पोस्ट (पूर्व में ट्विटर) खाते “सी.एम.ओ. दिल्ली” को खुद का निजी एक्स पोस्ट खाता बनाकर उसे “केजरीवाल एट वर्क” का नाम देने की हम निंदा करते हैं।
दस साल के सत्ता काल में राशन कार्ड से शीशमहल घोटाले तक और ऑटो… pic.twitter.com/mjLpGjTDHX
— BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) February 13, 2025
He also demanded a report from the government’s IT Department to establish who had ordered the change in, and deletion of, the Delhi Chief Minister’s X handle.
Mr Kejriwal has yet to respond. But the AAP has issued a preliminary rebuttal, declaring the BJP should desist from “baseless allegations” and focus on governing the national capital.
The AAP vs BJP war that made headlines before and during the Delhi election has shown no sign of stopping as the latter takes charge of Delhi, which, for over a decade, had been Kejriwal territory.
Atishi slammed the BJP Thursday, declaring she had received complaints about faltering electricity supply almost immediately after the saffon party came to power. She claimed that within three days of the AAP being removed more than 40 outages had reported from across the city.
READ | Atishi Claims “BJP Will Turn Delhi Into UP”. Party Hits Back
However, Mr Sachdeva said he had no such information and challenged Atishi to specify which areas of Delhi are experiencing power cuts instead of making “baseless” statements.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s new Chief Minister has yet to be announced – sources told NDTV this will be decided after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns later tonight from his trip to the United States – but there has already been much speculation over who will succeed the AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Atishi.
READ | BJP’s Delhi Govt Formation Talks Awaits PM’s Return From US
On top of that list is former two-time MP Parvesh Verma, who took on and defeated Mr Kejriwal in his New Delhi constituency, a seat he had held since 2013, when he beat the late Congress stalwart Sheila Dikshit. Incidentally, since 1998 the New Delhi seat has always been held by the Chief Minister.
With input from agencies
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