At protest against Delhi’s water crisis, Congress dashes matkas — and chances of alliance with AAP

“If there was even a sliver of the possibility of the Congress working together with the AAP for the Delhi Assembly elections like the Lok Sabha polls, that it no longer exists has been demonstrated by us today,” a senior Delhi Congress leader said.

“There is a big political vacuum that now exists in Delhi and our objective is to fill it. We will contest all 70 Assembly seats on our own and reclaim the space that was wrested by the AAP 10 years ago,” the leader added.

Congress workers and local residents raised slogans such as “pani ke liye Delhi behal-tanker mafia malamal”, “Dilli sarkar ki ye nadani, leakage se behta 58% paani” and “Kharid ke paani peeta har pariwar, neend me soi Dilli sarkar” among others as part of the protest.

Residents filling water from Delhi Jal Board’s water tanker amid water crises at Vasant Vihar in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Residents complained of being supplied dirty water through taps, alleging that the Delhi government had done nothing to solve the water shortage for the past 10 years by, for instance, increasing the water treatment capacity of Delhi Jal Board plants.

Yadav accused the AAP and BJP governments of “inaction and dilly-dallying” as the people of Delhi struggled to get “even a drop of potable water”. “Both the BJP and AAP governments have been neglecting the plight of the people by accusing each other instead of taking effective steps to solve the water crisis. Collusion between the tanker mafia and the ruling party MLAs and wide-spread corruption are the primary reasons for Delhi’s water crisis,” he alleged.

“BJP and Aam Aadmi Party have been shadowboxing on the issue… The AAP government should have taken up the water crisis with the Central government and sought the release of water by Himachal Pradesh, UP and Haryana to meet the requirements of Delhi, but it kept quiet till the crisis went out of control,” he also alleged.