Delhi Polls: Kiran Bedi card failed, PM Modi card ineffective, says Yogendra Yadav

How would you read the kind of effort and resources that BJP is putting into Delhi for this election?

There are obvious signs of disarray in BJP. The finance minister of the country has been called back to the frontline to manage a Delhi state election. Why has BJP staked so much in the Delhi election? I think it has become a prestige issue because losing Delhi will break the momentum for BJP which is unacceptable. It will also break the myth of invincibility that the party has built around itself. I don't think they will mind losing to Congress but it is the idea that there is another viable model that is worrying them.

Association of Democratic Reforms has released a report according to which 21 AAP candidates have criminal cases against them. This leads to the question that has AAP started aping other parties as recognition of real politics?

This figure is not a very good basis to arrive at this conclusion. I have appealed to agencies like ADR to make a distinction between political cases and cases of criminality. Unlike any other party, we have an ombudsman who is not a member of the party but he is above the party's highest decision-making body. There were complaints against several candidates who did not allegedly match the integrity standards of the party and the lokpal gave a verdict against two of them. This year, there was a higher rate of induction from other parties compared to last time. This is what gives rise to the perception. We had done very poorly in outer areas of Delhi last time which gave rise to the recognition that the character of outer and rural Delhi is very different from the main areas. This is not to say that we will induct criminals into the party but one needs to tap into pre-existing networks. We tapped into that and put up a filter of lokpal to ensure we got candidates with integrity.

A list of complaints against 12 candidates was forwarded to the lokpal of which only two were removed. I know that many complaints were forwarded to the lokpal. When he looked into it, he did not look merely at legal evidence but also at the reputation of the candidates. In one case where the candidate was removed, his reputation was the only ground for removal. There was no other case where someone could produce anything concrete against a candidate.

But were all senior members happy with the choice of candidates?

Is there any political party where there is no disagreement over candidate selection? A party where there is contestation about tickets, there are bound to be differences. In the case of AAP, the media gets to know about the internal conflicts. Congress and BJP have thicker walls around their decision-making structures. We do not have such walls and nor do we wish to make them.

Do you think AAP has fallen prey to promises which have been unrealistic and difficult to keep? For instance, last year the party offered 20 kilolitres of free water each month but it was only later that one realized that a litre more than that would mean that all the water had to be paid for?

The difference lies between headlines and what we say. That we will give only so much free water and that the power tariff reduction was in a certain slab was said clearly in our manifesto. There was no attempt on our part to hide anything. People have been saying that we have promised the moon to people but can they point out even one item out of the 70 points listed in the party's manifesto which is impossible or irresponsible or incompatible with anything we have promised.