‘Sheesh Mahal 2.0’: Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva on Kejriwal’s ‘palatial’ Punjab bungalow

New Delhi: Calling it Sheesh Mahal 2.0, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Virendra Sachdeva, on Friday, launched a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal for his reported possession of a “palatial” bungalow of the Punjab government.

“You need to give answers Arvind Kejriwal. What is this Sheesh Mahal 2.0. Are you now planning to loot Punjab on the lines you did in Delhi?” Sachdeva asked in a video message.

He said that Kejriwal needs to clarify if the Sheesh Mahal model has now turned its focus on Punjab, which is the pride of the nation, for corruption and loot.

“I have come to know that Kejriwal has occupied a multi-crore rupee bungalow in Punjab which is even costlier than the one he built in Delhi,” the Delhi BJP Chief added.

The former Delhi Chief Minister needs to explain how he has been provided a “Sheesh Mahal with a seven-star facility” in Punjab under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s quota despite not being an elected legislator or Minister in that state, Sachdeva said.

“Kejriwal has to answer queries on his bungalow love which he has carried to Punjab from Delhi. Is he planning to loot Punjab just like he looted Delhi,” he added.

The Delhi BJP President also questioned the quota under which he was given the two-acre, seven-star bungalow in Chandigarh’s Sector-2.

“As far as I know, Kejriwal is just a National Convenor of a National Party and under this capacity he has already been allotted a bungalow in Delhi. His love for bungalows is unexplained,” Sachdeva said.

Sheesh Mahal is originally is a political term used by the BJP to refer to Kejriwal’s erstwhile Chief Minister’s residence at 6 Flag Staff Road in north Delhi, which it claimed was no less than a palace.

The AAP leader faced the BJP’s ire over alleged misuse of public funds for the bungalow’s renovation at exorbitant costs and using toilet accessories, curtains and TVs and personal gymnasiums, normally seen in a royal palace.

According to the BJP, the Sheesh Mahal in Delhi was a symbol of corruption and wasteful expenditure under the AAP government — a political plank which, partly, resulted in the Kejriwal-led political outfit’s ouster in the Delhi Assembly election earlier this year.

The controversy over Kejriwal’s “palatial” Punjab bungalow swirled after AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal drew public attention towards it by posting a message on social media.

Taking to social media platform X, Maliwal wrote, “After Delhi’s Sheesh Mahal was vacated, Arvind Kejriwal has built a Sheesh Mahal in Punjab, even more magnificent than Delhi’s.”

She claimed that Kejriwal has been allotted a luxurious “seven-star” government bungalow, suggesting its ‘illegal and illegitimate’ allocation to a person who doesn’t hold any public office and, therefore, not entitled to have one.

IANS