New Delhi, 3 Jan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed AAP as an "aapda" for Delhi, saying this "aapda" had taken the national capital in its grip in the past 10 years.

Addressing people after launching a slew of infrastructure projects in the national capital, including in housing and education sectors, he hit out at the AAP-led city government and said the situation in the national capital would worsen if its reign continued.

On the one hand, the Centre is making a lot of efforts; on the other, the Union Territory government stands for brazen lies, Modi said, accusing the AAP government of committing corruption in a host of sectors ranging from school education to fighting pollution and the liquor trade.

With Assembly elections set to be held in the city next month, the prime minister said Delhi had launched a war on this "aapda (disaster)" and decided to get rid of it.

Giving a call for AAP's defeat, Modi raised the slogan, "'Aapda' ko nahi sahenge, badal kar rahenge (we will not tolerate 'aapda', we will remove it)." "This year will usher in a new politics of nation-building and people's welfare. Therefore, 'aapda' has to be removed and the BJP brought in," he said.

Due to the city government not allowing the Centre's signature health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, and other programmes in the national capital, Modi said he was unable to fully help the people living here despite his efforts.

If highways are being built in the capital and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has been able to make houses for the poor, it is because "aapda" does not have much role in these sectors, he added.

Taking a swipe at former Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, Modi said he could also have built a "sheesh mahal" for himself but his dream was to ensure homes for everyone in the country. "These people commit corruption and then glorify it," he said, accusing AAP of shamelessness and making false promises.

The BJP has been targeting Kejriwal for allegedly spending a huge amount of money on his official residence when he was chief minister, and described his erstwhile home as "sheesh mahal".

The country knows very well that he never built a home for himself, Modi said. "But in the past 10 years, (my government) has built four crore houses for the poor and fulfilled their dreams. I could have also built a 'sheesh mahal'. But my dream was to give a pucca house to my countrymen," he said, stressing his vision to provide a concrete house to those living in slums.

He said 2025 would bring many new possibilities for India, asserting that the country had become a symbol of political and economic stability in the world.

India will rise to become a big manufacturing hub in the new year in which new records in the agriculture sector and women-led development will be registered as well, he said. The prime minister asserted India's global standing and image would also be strengthened in 2025.

Providing affordable housing to the poor and the middle class is a priority for the BJP-led central government, he said and added one crore new houses would be built for the urban poor in the next phase. It is the BJP-led government at the Centre which will help do it, Modi said.

The government is also providing a big rebate in home loan interest rate so that the middle class can own a home, the prime minister said while also highlighting the Centre's efforts to boost infrastructure in the education sector.

Modi inaugurated a slew of development projects, including 1,675 flats for residents of 'jhuggi-jhopri' (JJ) or slum clusters and two urban redevelopment projects in the city.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a statement said Modi would also lay the foundation stone of the Veer Savarkar College at Roshanpura, Najafgarh, which would have state-of-the-art facilities for education, besides an academic block in east Delhi and another in Dwarka.