Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday (20 October) said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party wanted Delhi to be 'AAP Nirbhar' while the BJP wanted the national capital to be Atmanirbhar, and asked the people to choose between the two in the MCD elections.

At the launch of a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Tehkhand here, Shah also accused the Kejriwal government of step-motherly treatment to the erstwhile three civic bodies and said it owed Rs 40,000 crore to the municipal corporations.

Alleging that the AAP government had been spending heavily on publicity, he claimed Kejriwal was under the impression that development comes from advertisements, but said '"this illusion can last only for five to seven years".

Coining new terms, Shah added that people would have to choose between 'Vigyapan ki Rajniti' (politics of advertisement) and 'Vikas ki Rajniti' (politics of development).

Shah also assured that the BJP will be ready with a plan to make Delhi garbage-free by the time MCD elections are held and that the city will be in a position to process 100 per cent of its daily waste by 2025.

The Union government had passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, merging the three MCDs into one.

Out of the three, only South Delhi Municipal Corporation was financially viable, while the other two reeled under financial woes.

The Delhi government led by AAP kept the three MCDs devoid of funds and refused to release the funds despite warnings from the High Court.

With completion of the delimitation process reducing the number of MCD wards from 272 to 250, the path to civic body polls has been further cleared.

(with inputs from PTI)