Delhi polls: Bluster on donations will not help, says FM Arun Jaitley

Finance minister Arun Jaitley spoke to Surojit Gupta and Sidhartha on his party's prospects and the key issues of Delhi elections. Following are the excerpts:

Opinion polls are predicting a tight finish. What is your assessment?

I don't want to get into the correctness of any poll. It's the job of the pollsters to do polls. For me as a political activist what matters is the actual election. We are concentrating on what will happen between morning and evening of February 7. We have put in our entire energy and the party machinery is fully active. We hope to do extremely well and are confident of forming a government in Delhi.

The issue of Rs 2 crore donation to AAP has kicked up a controversy...

For any political donation there must be a donor and a donee. Can the donee, AAP, tell us what the name of the donor is? Who is the person behind these sham companies? If no answers are given then the people of Delhi are entitled to presume that no answers could have been given because there is no donor. It is round tripping of cash and conversion into cheque by entry lending companies, and the answer to this is not a bluff and bluster that 'you send me to jail' or that 'I will write to the Chief Justice'. You lift the veil and there is a person or an entity behind every company.

Arvind Kejriwal is throwing a challenge at you. Is any action being contemplated?

He knows he is giving a false argument because he has been a revenue service officer and he knows that for income tax offences, Indian Penal Code and the arrest powers under CrPC don't apply.

Did BJP fail to highlight the issue of development?

No, we have. In fact in the last few days we have highlighted it. The principal issue is governance versus anarchy. Forty-nine days of the AAP rule in Delhi was the worst nightmare that Delhi has ever had. People do not remember anything except dharna and a threat to disturb the Republic Day parade. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi represent the face of good governance.

AAP has done a localized campaign, while BJP has focused on the big picture, which seems to have less connect with the voters.

I don't think that's the case. Our people are more active in the field, we have more MLAs than them and we have a longer history in Delhi. We have done more development work in the constituencies than they ever have. In fact, AAP is not known for its performance on the field. What has Kejriwal done for his New Delhi assembly constituency? Is he not guilty of a complete neglect?

Do you think in an adverse result for the party, will it not be seen as a referendum on the Prime Minister?

Obviously not. These are local elections and they are contested on local issues. I am not expecting any adverse verdict.

What will be the key themes that you are going to deal with in the budget?

I can't give you the details but I can only tell you my priority is growth and depletion of poverty and in the last eight months, the entire activity of the National Democratic Alliance government is focused in this direction.