New Delhi, Oct 31 (PTI) The AAP claimed on Monday that just like in 2017, the BJP has decided not to field its incumbent councillors in the upcoming MCD polls due to their alleged involvement in corruption.

Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) MCD polls in-charge Durgesh Pathak accused the BJP councillors of "gobbling up" Rs 35,000 crore.

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"The BJP has taken a decision that just like in 2017, it will not give tickets to the incumbent councillors for the 2022 MCD polls. It did not give tickets to any of its councillors in 2017 as well," Pathak told a press conference.

Alleging that the move "clearly indicates" that all the BJP councillors are corrupt, the Rajinder Nagar MLA said the saffron party itself acknowledges that.

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"During the 2017 polls, all their councillors were found to be corrupt. They used to extort money during lintering and gobble up MCD funds. Same is the case after five years. Their councillors are totally corrupt and completely incompetent," he alleged.

Pathak wondered that when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) acknowledged in 2017 as well as in 2022 that all of its councillors were corrupt, why did it not take any action against them till date.

"These councillors have committed corruption of around Rs 35,000 crore between 2017 and 2022. Their leaders and MCD officials have gobbled up almost half of the civic body's budget. However, no proceedings were initiated, not even a single FIR was filed, no CBI-ED investigation was ordered against even a single BJP councillor.

"It is their councillors who loot money but who goes to jail? Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia and other leaders. What type of justice is this? The BJP councillors have looted the MCD to such an extent that Delhi could not have been in a worse position than this," he alleged.

The AAP leader claimed that people will not vote for the BJP in the upcoming MCD polls.

"They are not going to fall into any trap or get lured. They will teach a lesson to all their councillors, who will not even be able to save their security deposits," he said.

The MCD polls are expected to take place at the fag end of 2022 or early next year.

The municipal polls were slated to be held in April but were put on hold hours before the then Delhi state election commissioner S K Srivastava was to announce the schedule on March 8 due to the Centre's plan to reunify the three erstwhile civic bodies.

The civic bodies were reunified by the Centre in May and the exercise for delimitation of wards was launched in July.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)