National president of Swaraj India Yogendra Yadav on Saturday appealed to the people of Delhi to opt for “NOTA”, which he termed as “No Till an Alternative” in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
As Delhi goes to vote on May 12, Mr. Yadav said considering all the three major parties have not delivered on promises, Delhiites should register their resentment by opting for NOTA.
“The people of Delhi have suffered in the hands of all three parties — Congress, AAP and BJP. It is important that citizens register their unease, anger and disquiet by opting for NOTA. How else are you supposed to tell the political parties that you are unhappy?” he said.
‘Won’t support any’
Mr. Yadav added that while the party will not be contesting in the Lok Sabha poll, it will also not support any candidate from Delhi.
“We are supporting various candidates from across the country. However, we have decided that we will not support anyone from Delhi. This is primarily because all the three parties have disappointed the people of Delhi. We will go forward with NOTA until an alternative is found,” he said.
The BJP governments at the Centre and at the civic bodies have failed to deliver on promises, he said.
“Law and order in Delhi is under the Centre. However, despite assurances following the Nirbhaya incident and several movements that took place after that, women are still unsafe in the Capital. For the civic bodies, there seems to be no Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Delhi. Why is the situation so bad?” he said.
Taking upon the AAP government, Mr. Yadav said, “They keep complaining about not having powers but what have they done with sectors which are under them? Transport is one of them. The DTC fleet has actually reduced since the time the AAP government took over.”
“We have faith in democracy and so we do not want to boycott polls. We have undertaken a movement through which we want to appeal to people to opt for NOTA. We want to continue raising pertinent issues. NOTA should be the mandate against all major political parties in Delhi,” Mr. Yadav said.