Saurabh Bharadwaj, Delhi Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) President and former minister, on BJP’s Delhi government, expanding the party in Gujarat and the matter of vote chori and vote deletion. He was in conversation with Manoj CG, Chief of National Bureau (Politics), The Indian ExpressManoj CG: When a party is defeated in an election, it continues its work for the next five years as the Opposition and tries to make a comeback. Since 10 months, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has shifted to Punjab, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia is in Punjab, Atishi is focussing on Goa. AAP is a party which was primarily born in Delhi. Why have you abandoned it?I don’t think we have abandoned Delhi. The thought process in the party is that we are a national party. We are using this time as an opportunity to grow ourselves in other parts of the country. So the party decided to give different roles and responsibilities to our main leaders. Mr Kejriwal is primarily focussing on three states — Punjab, Goa and Gujarat. Mr Sisodia and Mr Satyendra Kumar Jain are primarily focussing on Punjab. Mr Gopal Rai and Mr Durgesh Pathak are in Gujarat and Atishiji, along with few of our leaders, is in Goa. I am in Delhi. So it is a strategy with which the party is trying to expand in different states. Mr Kejriwal is actually stationed in Delhi but he’s not very active in Delhi’s day-to-day politics. Most of the time he is working behind the scenes for these three states – Punjab, Goa and Gujarat.Manoj CG: Aren’t you giving a long honeymoon period to the BJP?As an Opposition we don’t have much to do. And as an Opposition we should give BJP enough time to showcase their work in Delhi. I believe we have started doing quite well in Gujarat. We are almost one-and-a-half years away from elections in Gujarat but the kind of crowd that we are getting in our public meetings is phenomenal. Nobody will say it on record but the very reason why the BJP had to replace all their Cabinet in Gujarat is AAP. We are growing in rural Gujarat phenomenally and people are seeing hope. And if AAP is able to do something in Gujarat, we will be able to puncture the narrative of the Gujarat model. And the BJP knows we can do it.Manoj CG: You’re not part of the India bloc anymore and Congress is working as the main challenger to the BJP. With AAP focussing all its energy in Gujarat, won’t it be easier for the BJP to divide the votes and win?Rahul Gandhi, at his last public meeting in Gujarat, said that a lot of leaders in Gujarat Congress are working for the BJP. If you go around Gujarat you will get a sense that BJP is in power in Gujarat only because they have an understanding with a lot of Congress leaders. There is a tactical understanding. I don’t think Congress will be able to overturn BJP’s government in Gujarat. They need the AAP.Story continues below this adManoj CG: Delhi government is claiming that the pollution levels are down, the Yamuna is comparatively cleaner. You keep puncturing those claims. One of the reasons, many thought, AAP was voted out was that you were on a collision course with the Central government all the time. Now that there’s a BJP government in Delhi and at the Centre, is the situation improving ?I think a lot of English newspapers and TV channels created a narrative that Delhi is not getting what it should because they have the AAP government. So whenever there was an issue which was raised by the elected government, they didn’t go into the ethical aspect of that issue or what is right in our democracy. They always showcased it as a confrontation between officers and the elected government. People bought this narrative, especially the English speaking people, who started thinking that if there is a government which belongs to one party from top to bottom, there’ll be a lot of work done. The kind of deadlock which was manufactured by the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi and BJP’s central Government — they stopped all the funds for the Delhi Jal Board, for welfare schemes in the health sector. It was very problematic. Even the basic work of cleaning the sewer was not happening because certain officers at the behest of the LG stopped those funds. Though the funds were available in the budget, the government was not able to spend the money. There was a lot of chaos at the ground level. People started believing that this chaos can be solved if we have a BJP government in Delhi. Now you have BJP from top to bottom, from mayor to the PM and from MCD to central government. We can see that the government does not have any intention to work.To fix the problems of air pollution and water pollution in Yamuna, you need a certain road map. But then the BJP government started fudging data. They started manipulating AQI numbers. They manufactured a fake Yamuna at Vasudev Ghat. They don’t want to work. They just want to fabricate a narrative. That’s why we have started calling them out.On Delhi’s Air Pollution | ‘Everybody in Delhi is coughing. The doctors are saying that the problem is far worse than before. But the Environment Minister of Delhi says, every day, look, we have reduced pollution, AQI numbers are coming down’They brought in a proposal of installing six new AQI monitoring stations and they wanted to install these in the ridge area of Delhi, in the college campuses, in JNU, IGNOU and an engineering college far away in Najafgarh. Why? So that the average AQI reading can come down. In any forest area, the AQI will obviously come down. Despite that they were not able to manage it. So they are continuously sprinkling water on these monitoring stations and it is such a shame. Everybody in Delhi is coughing and sneezing or has burning eyes. Doctors are telling us that the problem is far worse. But Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the Environment Minister of Delhi, says every day, that look, we have reduced pollution. They say that we don’t have a magic wand that can clean Yamuna in eight months. I agree. But before Chhath Puja, their ministers started doing tours of Yamuna and said, ‘We know how to clean Yamuna. Kejriwal didn’t know. He wasted 10 years, so we will clean Yamuna’. At Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana, they diverted all the water from the eastern and western canal into Yamuna. All the water which goes for irrigation of UP and Haryana farmers was diverted into Yamuna just for five-seven days so that the flow of Yamuna is so enormous, that all the pollutants which enter Yamuna from drain 2, 6 and 8 and Najafgarh drain (nala) are diluted enough so that it appears cleaner. That is ridiculous. Just before Chhath Puja or the Bihar elections you set up this day when the PM will come and celebrate Chhath Puja. The PM is very conscious of his health. His staff is very conscious. They would never let him take a dip in a polluted Yamuna.Story continues below this ad AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj (right) in a conversation with Manoj CG, Chief of National Bureau (Politics), The Indian Express. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)Manoj CG: But that he (PM Modi) was supposed to visit and that it got cancelled was said by the AAP and Congress.Just five days before Chhath Puja, the Wazirabad Treatment Plant rising mains were punctured. It was passing through Vasudev nala. A new pipeline was laid from that to this fabricated fake Yamuna. Was it for the people? You have created these ghats at 1,100 places in Delhi. Why were the rising mains punctured only for this ghat? PMO officials, LG, all the ministers including the CM, visited the place. The PM was supposed to come. Many media channels also broke the news. But since it was all exposed, he did not visit. It would have been embarrassing for him that the BJP created an artificial Yamuna of mineral water for him, while ordinary Purvanchalis were taking a dip in polluted Yamuna.Jatin Anand: What about a scheme like Mahila Samriddhi Yojana that was announced by the PM, of Rs 2,500 being provided to Delhi women. You also had a similar scheme. What is stopping AAP from going to the people and making it an issue?The problem is that we have so many issues at hand every day that we are not getting time for this issue. Every day they are doing so many frauds that I have three topics on which I had to do a press conference, but I said let’s do it one at a time. We will raise this issue. Maybe make it a kind of a public movement.On Vote Chori Allegations | ‘There is an organised vote chori happening across the country. I’m convinced as I have seen it in Delhi. You can’t make it an election issue… but you will have to deal with it democratically to make it a mass movement’Jatin Anand: Is there anger among the people?Story continues below this adI can’t say that there is anger but if you remind people that you voted BJP for this, then people may get angry about it. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj (right) in a conversation with Manoj CG, Chief of National Bureau (Politics), The Indian Express. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)Rahul Sabharwal: How do you view the allegations of vote chori made by Rahul Gandhi?As a voter I don’t think people vote thinking that since there was vote chori and I will not vote for BJP. You can’t make it an election issue but you can make it a mass movement across the country. There is an organised vote chori happening across the country. I am convinced because I have seen it in Delhi. When I lost in Delhi (in 2025), in my constituency, as a sitting MLA, I knew I was winning. Even the BJP knew. So when I lost, I was convinced that there was some kind of manipulation. In the New Delhi constituency in the 2020 legislative assembly election there were 1.48 lakh votes. In December 2024 there were around 1.6 lakh votes. So 42,000 votes had already been deleted. If you look at the pattern of deletion and if you speak to the person in whose name these deletion applications have been filed — they are on record that they never filed these deletion applications.The then Delhi CM Atishi gave a written complaint about how this exercise is happening along with all the evidence to the Election Commission (EC). There is no FIR yet. Atishi wrote two to three complaints to the EC. We as a delegation, which included Bhagwant Mann, the sitting CM of Punjab; Atishi, the sitting CM Delhi; Mr Kejriwal; Sanjay Singh; MPs including the likes of Raghav Chadha, went and met the Chief Election Commissioner. There has been no investigation. I filed an RTI in August 2025 almost eight months after we filed the complaint, asking for the status. For every question, the answer was: we have no information.Story continues below this adManoj CG: But those deletions don’t happen automatically after someone files for deletion application. There’s a verification after that.There is a theoretical process but practically nothing happens. According to the process, a BLO (Booth Level Officer) should visit this place and cross check before deleting the vote. But in Delhi, it did not happen that way. Applications were given, they were impersonations, and votes were deleted. People came on record. The EC did not do any inquiry.On Sir exercise | ‘Had the purpose been to clean electoral rolls, you would not see chief of Purvanchal Morcha of Delhi BJP voting in Delhi in February and then in Bihar. Special Chhatt trains are taking passengers to Bihar. Nobody will celebrate Chhath after Chhath’Asad Rehman: What do you think that the Congress or the Opposition has to do in a country as diverse as India for vote chori to become a mass movement?When Rahul Gandhi spoke about vote chori in Bengaluru, Haryana and some other places, he should have spoken about the vote chori in Delhi too. The first time an allegation of vote chori by a national party was made was in December 2024. Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi, Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, they all did many press conferences saying that at a mass level voter deletions and additions were taking place. We started seeing a pattern. Poor Purvanchalis, Dalits, their votes were being cut off at a large scale.Story continues below this adYou will have to deal with the vote chori democratically and peacefully or else they will throw you behind bars imposing NIA, like what happened in Ladakh. You will have to keep it peaceful and mobilise at a mass level to see some results. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj (right) in a conversation with Manoj CG, Chief of National Bureau (Politics), The Indian Express. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)Manoj CG: One of the biggest issues in the Delhi elections was the official residence of the CM and now we are hearing the same kind of reports from Punjab as well.That bungalow has been there for the last 20-30 years. It may have been painted, which is a very usual thing. Now they are saying that a sheesh mahal has been created. These are all stories. Earlier they used to say there is a swimming pool, and a gold commode, there is a bar. So, we said, ‘Let there be a tour’. Then they said, ‘No, we’ll open it after the elections’. They haven’t opened it yet. Then they said, ‘We will make it a museum’. They didn’t even make it a museum. Why? Because it doesn’t have a bar or a gold commode. All these are hallucinations. Let there be a tour of the PM’s residence, Punjab CM’s residence and whatever new residence they are claiming.Alok Singh: The Anti-Corruption Unit has registered a case against you regarding hospital construction irregularities. What is your take?Story continues below this adThe case says that some hospitals started getting constructed under the Delhi government but there was corruption. These hospitals started getting constructed between 2019 and 2021. It was during this time that the tenders of the hospitals were also made. I became a minister in 2023. During my tenure no hospital was sanctioned, nor was there any tender. I did not sign any file regarding the payment for these hospitals. Any lawyer will tell you that the FIR has no merit. But the ACP is theirs, the government is theirs. They have so much uncontrolled power that they can file an FIR against anybody and based on that FIR, ED files a money laundering FIR.Liz Mathew: Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj has many similarities with the emergence of the AAP. How do you assess its current position?As a political observer, it gives a lot of hope that somebody who went around Bihar, campaigned around the ideas of education, health and social welfare, was accepted in Bihar, which was always considered to be a state with caste-based elections. There are allegations that he is aligned with the BJP but I don’t have any evidence. So till somebody proves that, he is a ray of hope in Bihar.Damini Nath: When the Chief Election Commissioner is asked about vote deletion, he says that this is why he’s brought the SIR (Special Intensive Revision). Do you think it is going to clean the electoral rolls?Story continues below this adHad the purpose been to clean electoral rolls, you would not see the chief of Purvanchal Morcha of Delhi BJP voting first in Delhi on February 5 and then voting again in Bihar. The special Chhatt trains are taking passengers from North India to Bihar. Nobody will celebrate Chhath after Chhath. By the government’s admission, 12,500 special trains were run. Why? Because they wanted to take Bihar voters from various different Indian cities directly to Bihar and all these tickets were done by the BJP. The district president of BJP, in every district, is standing there saying goodbye. So if SIR was to eradicate voters who are not staying in Bihar, all these voters should have been eradicated by now. This exercise was a farce.Damini Nath: Do you intend on going to court against SIR?It will be difficult to get justice from courts at least in such matters.Nirbhay Thakur: The current government refused AAP the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) loan but itself asked for a 15,000 crore NSSF loan. How do you counter that?The solution is to form a government at the Centre. Wherever there is a government which is not a BJP or NDA government, they will not let it grow.Gayathri Mani: The new government is planning a new excise policy. What is your opinion?They will slowly degrade government schools, promote private hospitals and nursing homes. They are degrading all the health facilities which were created by our government. They have stopped the DAK scheme through which people could get free surgeries and free tests even in a private hospital. They have stopped Farishtey scheme where anybody who gets injured on the roads of Delhi is treated free of cost in any private hospital in Delhi. They have stopped the consumables and medicines in mohalla clinics, dispensaries and hospitals. Very soon they will bring far bigger liquor shops in Delhi. They used to criticise us. But they will bring showroom size liquor vends in Delhi like they have in Gurgaon. And they will privatise the retail liquor business like we did because that is the only way ahead.