Why among action against its leaders, the case against Saurabh Bharadwaj will hurt poll-hit AAP

The Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has claimed that it has “prima facie” found evidence of cost inflation, delays, and misallocation of funds in the sanction and construction of 24 hospitals across the city.

While several senior AAP leaders, including ex-Delhi chief minister Kejriwal and ex-deputy CM Manish Sisodia, have been facing corruption charges in connection with the Delhi liquor policy “scam”, this is the first time that Bharadwaj has been accused of corruption by an agency.

Unlike Jain, who has been facing multiple graft cases being probed by various central agencies – and has also served jail for a long time after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case in 2022 – Bharadwaj has until now enjoyed a clean image, who has been known as a “media-savvy AAP troubleshooter” and a “policy-focused leader” in the AAP circles.

The Delhi government’s move against Bharadwaj in an alleged graft case also puts a break to the slight momentum the AAP seemed to have gathered after its debacle in the Delhi Assembly polls earlier this year. The polls saw the AAP losing power to the BJP after three consecutive stints at the helm of the Delhi government, getting just 22 seats out of 70 as against the BJP’s 48.

After facing the loss, Kejriwal carried out a major reshuffle of the party office-bearers. Sisodia was named as the AAP’s Punjab in-charge, while Jain was appointed the party’s Punjab’s co-incharge. Currently, Punjab is the only state where the AAP is in power.

Bharadwaj was appointed the Delhi AAP president. With the AAP being the principal Opposition in Delhi now, Bharadwaj’s task is cut out as he has been trying to rally the party workers and galvanise them in order to take on the BJP government effectively.

With Bharadwaj facing a corruption probe, however, the morale of the Delhi AAP’s rank and file is likely to be dampened further.

And with Jain staring at a fresh case of alleged corruption, the Punjab AAP may also face heat as it gears up for the next Assembly elections slated for early 2027.

Complaint against Bharadwaj, Jain

The complaint in the alleged hospital construction scam was lodged by BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, who is currently Delhi Assembly Speaker, with the ACB in August 2024, accusing the then AAP government of allegedly indulging in irregularities in 24 hospital projects through “deliberate delays” and “inflated costs”.

In his complaint, Gupta flagged consistent patterns of financial misconduct, alleging “inflation of the project costs, deliberate delays by departments, rejection of cost-effective solutions, misallocation of funds, and creation of idle assets” that led, he charged, to a massive loss to the government exchequer. The ACB sent its report to the DoV in January this year. The ACB serves as the primary investigative unit of the state Vigilance department and reports to it.

The DoV has now sought permission for a sanction from the President to enable the ACB probe against Bharadwaj and Jain in the case. It would spell further trouble for the AAP if the Centre gives its go-ahead to the Vigilance department.

The AAP has rejected corruption allegations against both its leaders in the case as false. The party has maintained that these hospital projects were necessary to boost health infrastructure in Delhi, claiming that they paid off during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the pandemic broke out in 2020, seven of these hospitals were supposed to set up about 7,000 ICU beds to deal with the heavy inflow of patients. However, none has been completed so far.

“Projections in 2020 suggested Delhi would need 80,000 beds, including ICU capacity. The government mobilised its limited resources accordingly. Once the (Covid) threat subsided, priorities changed,” the AAP said in a statement.

The AAP claimed that “no revised file” with the inflated costs had reached the ministers, and blamed the BJP-led Centre for allegedly “withholding” funds and “weaponising” investigative agencies.

AAP leaders see the Delhi government’s move as part of a “larger pattern of sustained institutional pressure on AAP”, especially after the arrest of key leaders including Kejriwal and Sisodia, who have been out on bail now.

“Deadline shifts and cost increases are common in government projects across departments… Rather than accusing us of corruption, the BJP should carry out an inquiry at the bureaucratic level,” Bharadwaj told The Indian Express.