* What will you promise the voters this time? What are the issues you will bring up which the Congress government has failed to address? ?

The government has failed on every front.

Ten years after the privatisation of power, the companies have been looting people through inflated billing. The supply is not complete and there have been long powercuts throughout this summer. Water supply in almost all areas is bad. The Sonia Vihar plant is not fully operational yet. We will focus on health problems first. Dengue cases are on the rise and people of Delhi do not have access to world-class medical facilities. We had laid the foundation of many hospitals during our tenure. But none of them — be it in the JNU campus, Nizamuddin or West Delhi — have seen any progress in the last 10 years. Transparency has to be brought into the system of governance. Delhi has to be given back to Delhiites.

* The election manifesto has not been announced yet but the BJP must have planned it already. What are the main issues you will be raising in it?

The election manifesto committee has just been announced and is about to begin consultations early next week. The biggest challenge before any government in the next decade will be to bridge the infrastructure deficit in terms of roads, water, electricity and habitation. There has to be accountability in governance. The power privatisation scandal, regularisation of unauthorised colonies, granting of identity cards to illegal Bangladeshi migrants, traffic chaos and potholes are the main issues.

* Of late, factions have been emerging within your party and the candidate for the post of chief minister has also not been declared. Rajnath Singh has reportedly been pushing for someone, RSS for another and L K Advani is said to have another candidate in mind. Why has the announcement not been made?

Yes, there have been differences and any party with a democratic setup will have people with different opinions. The reports are baseless.

Rajnath Singh is the president of the party and Advani is the seniormost leader. They will definitely not fritter away the advantage we have in Delhi by posting candidates against each other. As for why a candidate has not been announced, I can only say that everything will be done at the right time.

* Your party has a very good booth-level structure in Delhi, which you are banking on. How much does the RSS matter for the Delhi BJP and what is their role on the ground level?

The RSS does not interfere in BJP’s affairs. Many of us, including myself, have RSS backgrounds. At the ground level, a lot of our cadres visit RSS shakhas. During and between elections, a large number of them provide the BJP with intellectual inputs. Some of them undertake door-to-door campaigns. Others sit in booths on the day of the election. The BJP is the child of the RSS and every parent wishes his child well.

* You said you will follow the Gujarat model for development of Delhi. What aspects of the Gujarat model?

There is no poverty in Gujarat and the infrastructure has been strengthened. Professionals in every field have worked for development. The poor have been given pucca houses under the rule of Narendra Modi. Development work has been taken to every village. There is not a single unauthorised colony and people have jobs. The example of Gujarat should be emulated in Delhi and at the Centre too — on every front.

* The Congress has decided to regularise unauthorised colonies and you have been criticising the move. A huge rally was organised by the party recently to oppose the move. Why?

The regularisation scheme is a poll gimmick. They are just providing provisional certificates that will hold no importance for people living in unauthorised colonies once the elections are over. The Congress has done nothing in the past ten years to address the issue and is now playing it up as a poll stunt. People only want to know what they have done in the past decade of rule in Delhi, and not what they will do if they come to power again.