Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva criticized Aam Aadmi Party’s city convenor Saurabh Bharadwaj for what he termed as a “baseless” accusation against the Delhi government regarding the management of a Rs 1,000 crore loan. Sachdeva highlighted that it is a common administrative practice for state governments to secure loans for various needs from sources like the Central government, Reserve Bank of India, financial institutions, or the open market with RBI’s approval.
The Arvind Kejriwal government had also borrowed from the Central government in 2020 and 2022, while the Atishi government sought a Rs 10,000 crore loan from the National Small Savings Fund of the Government of India in November 2024 for electoral schemes before the elections. According to Delhi government data for 2024–25, the AAP government, after 11 years in power, left a debt of Rs 1,20,000 crore.
Contrasting the borrowing approaches, Sachdeva pointed out that the current Rekha Gupta government proposed a modest Rs 1,000 crore loan in its initial year for development projects, whereas the “AAP government” planned a Rs 10,000 crore loan just before the elections for freebies. He suggested that Bharadwaj should have scrutinized his own government’s loan requests, noting that the AAP-led Punjab government accumulated loans worth Rs 50,000 crore in its first year, leading to a current debt exceeding Rs 4 lakh crore.
