New Delhi: Pre-poll surveys being cited by Opposition parties as an indicator of popular support was an attempt to mislead people through "malicious campaigns", Congress said on Saturday.
Haroon Yusuf, Arvinder Singh and Raj Kumar Chouhan three senior ministers in the Sheila Dikshit government launched a broadside against the survey results being cited by Delhi BJP as well as Aam Aadmi Party which have seen both parties claiming that they would win the Dec 4 Assembly polls.
"These are fake surveys and malicious campaigns (by the parties) to mislead the people of Delhi and project themselves as the winner ahead of the polls. It is basically a mockery of democracy," Urban Development Minister Singh told reporters.
Opposition BJP is not worried about the "problems and issues plaguing the people of Delhi", instead their aim was to come to power by any means, Singh alleged.
"Between 1993 and 1998, when BJP was in power, they had three chief ministers. Now, while they haven`t yet formed the government, their leaders are still fighting amongst themselves to become the party`s chief ministerial candidate. Their emphasis is on coming to power by any means," he said.
The ministers also revealed a poster featuring caricatures of the Delhi BJP Chief and other chief ministerial contenders, including Harshwardhan, Vijender Gupta and VK Malhotra.
Mocking the survey results shared by BJP and AAP, Singh said, "It is their right to conduct surveys. But I can`t understand how both parties are going to form the government at the same time. That puts a question mark on such surveys."
Although he did not take any names, in an apparent reference to AAP, Singh alleged that the party was inflating surveys figures.
"I think that in the next 15-20 days, they would touch the 90 per cent mark (of vote share)," he said.
Power Minister Yusuf remarked on the BJP claim that it would bring in six to seven companies with a view to ensuring a lowering of the power tariff through greater competition saying that if each firm set up its own infrastructure, then electricity bills were more likely to go up than fall.
Attacking BJP and AAP for projecting a poor state of education in Delhi, Chauhan said the record was dismal at MCD run schools, not the government run ones.
"Our Sarvodaya schools have 98 per cent results while in MCD schools, a Std V student can`t write the basic alphabet. Also, the pupil to teacher ratio (1:35) is the best in our schools," Chauhan said.
