BJP leader Nupur Sharma dares Arvind Kejriwal to contest elections against her from New Delhi

Nupur Sharma had lost to Kejriwal in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections; but she told IBTimes India she is throwing an open challenge to Kejriwal to fight elections against her once again. Will he do it?

BJP leader Nupur Sharma, who lost the 2015 Delhi Assembly election from the New Delhi seat to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, has dared the Delhi chief minister to resign from his post and contest elections again from the same Assembly constituency.

She extended the challenge — both to International Business Times, India, and on Twitter — after the BJP won the Rajouri Garden Assembly bypoll by a comfortable margin on Thursday, April 13, and the election deposit of the AAP candidate from the seat, Harjeet Singh, was forfeited because he could not garner one-sixth of the total votes polled. Sharma added that this was the first time in Indian political history that the candidate of a ruling party had lost their election deposit.

The BJP leader told IBTimes India over the phone: "I am openly throwing a challenge at Arvind Kejriwal to resign from his post as chief minister and contest elections from the New Delhi constituency once again."

She also said that the people of Delhi had seen through the AAP's fake and false promises. "The people of Delhi have seen how their tax money was spent on dinners by Kejriwal where the plates cost between Rs 12,000 and Rs 16,000. They also saw how Kejriwal and his leaders spent Rs 1 crore on samosas and tea," she said.

When we pointed out AAP's claim of reducing water and electricity bills, Sharma shot back: "These cuts have come in the form of subsidies. And the subsidies people are being given today will come back to them in the form of more taxes tomorrow."

She also accused Kejriwal and the AAP of creating a water crisis, of which the local water mafia was taking heavy advantage. "Water is being sold at 10 times the normal price, and the buyers are people from lower-income groups, who are being exploited because they did not have water in the first place. This, even as the rich people spend more water," she explained to IBTimes India.

The Rajouri Garden bypoll loss and the subsequent challenge by Nupur Sharma may hit Kejriwal and the AAP hard, because they come just 10 days before the elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The BJP rules all three wings of the MCD, while the AAP is looking to make inroads there.