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New Delhi:

Home Minister Amit Shah today claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will not even win a single seat in Delhi in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

“BJP will win all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi with a huge mandate. AAP won’t be able to open its account there,” Amit Shah told NDTV’s Editor-In-Chief Sanjay Pugalia in an exclusive interview.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Mr Shah said the Delhi Excise Policy scam will keep haunting him. 

“People will see a huge liquor bottle whenever they will see Arvind Kejriwal campaigning. The Delhi Excise Policy scam will keep haunting him,” Mr Shah said.

Mr Kejriwal is out on bail until June 2 for campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections.

He was arrested in connection with a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy scam. The probe agency believes the Delhi Chief Minister played a key role in drafting the now-scrapped policy and seeking bribes, or kickbacks, in return for liquor licences. The agency has claimed the AAP received kickbacks of Rs 100 crore that was then used to fund its Goa and Punjab election campaigns.

To a question on whether “Ab ki baar 400 par” was just a slogan or a target based on facts, Mr Shah replied, “When we won the 2014 elections under Narendra Modi’s leadership on the slogan of absolute majority, many political analysts from Delhi had said this was not possible. But we got absolute majority. Then, in 2019, when we gave the slogan of ‘300 plus’, people said it is not possible. People are saying the same this time. But I think they will believe us in the next election before ‘400 par’ is happening this time.”

Delhi voted on May 25 in the sixth phase of elections amid an intense heatwave. The BJP won all seven seats in Delhi in the 2014 and 2019 elections and is aiming for a clean sweep for the third consecutive time.

The opposition INDIA bloc partners AAP and the Congress are contesting the elections in Delhi under a four-three seat-share formula. This is the first Lok Sabha election in Delhi in which AAP and the Congress have fielded joint candidates.