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Delhi

Law and order is under Centre, says AAP on protests at Shaheen Bagh

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stuck to its winning formula of steering clear of any discussion on the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests at Shaheen Bagh. Party spokesperson Raghav Chadha, who had contested from Rajinder Nagar and secured the seat for AAP from his constituency in the Delhi Assembly elections, dissociated the Delhi government from the issue on two counts –that "law and order is under the Centre" and that the contentious citizenship law is also something that concerns the Centre and not the Delhi Government.

In an interview, Chadha told NDTV, "We are a small political party in Delhi concerned with issues of basic amenities, healthcare, education, pollution... we have nothing to do with it (CAA and Shaheen Bagh)."

Amid a mega campaign by the BJP that focussed extensively on the protests, AAP practically repeated its historic win of 2015 –retaining 62 of the state assembly's 70 seats while BJP bagged only 8 seats. AAP had won 67 seats in 2015.

The BJP had targeted Shaheen Bagh –the epicentre of anti-CAA protests in which hundreds of women and children spent two months sitting on an arterial road – over traffic blocks which caused inconvenience to many people living in the national capital.

Arvind Kejriwal was accused of aiding the protesters - "serving biryani in Shaheen Bagh" was how Yogi Adityanath said in a speech.

But AAP managed to keep its focus tight on its work over the last five years – free water and power, revamping of schools and mohalla clinics – instead of getting drawn into the debate over the citizenship law or nationalism with the BJP.

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