Delhi Elections 2025: Amid AAP-Congress tussle, Arvind Kejriwal’s old dig at Rahul Gandhi resurfaces – ’still a kid’

Delhi Election 2025: Senior Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi on January 28 launched a scathing attack on Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and his party colleague Manish Sisodia, accusing the two of being the ‘architects’ of the alleged Delhi liquor scam.

The Leader of Opposition, addressing a public meeting ahead of Delhi Elections 2025, also invoked the controversy surrounding the bungalow in which Kejriwal stayed before stepping down as Chief Minister in September last year.

While targeting Kejriwal, Gandhi used the term ‘sheesh mahal’ – a phrase coined by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to highlight the alleged over spending in the CM's bungalow.

“And you must have seen the pictures of his house. Narendra Modi had thrown me out of my house. I handed over my keys and asked them to get going. Kejriwal lives in a mahal, in a sheesh mahal,” Gandhi said addressing a rally in Patparganj assembly constituency represented by Sisodia.

Delhi Assembly Elections are scheduled for February 5. The results will be announced on February 8.

Escalation in AAP-Congress tussle

Gandhi’s comments clearly indicated the escalation of the AAP-Congress tussle ahead of the February 5 assembly elections. The Congress has been trying to regain its foothold in Delhi—where it was in power for 15 years until 2013. AAP and the Congress are partners in INDIA bloc but rivals in Punjab and Delhi.

Hours after Rahul Gandhi’s attack, Kejriwal hit back wondering why no Congress leader have been arrested in the National Herald case so far. “Modi ji jails people even in fake cases like the liquor scam. Why haven’t you and your family been arrested in an open and shut case like the National Herald,” he wrote on X.

Soon after the war of words, an old tweet of Arvind Kejriwal resurfaced on social media in which the former chief minister had called the Congress leader a ‘kid’ during a political war of words over the controversial demolition at a Delhi slum in 2015

Rahul Gandhi ji is still a kid

"Rahul Gandhi ji is still a kid. His party has perhaps not told him that railway comes under the central government, not Delhi government" Kejriwal had said in the post on December 14, 2015 deriding Rahul Gandhi for blaming AAP government for the demolition at Shakur Basti by the railway police, which reports to the Centre.

AAP has been in power in Delhi since 2015. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party won the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections in the national capital.

The demolition has provoked a political war with Rahul Gandhi making a high profile visit to the slums today and AAP taking its protests against the Centre to Parliament. "Why is AAP doing dharna? They are in power in Delhi," Rahul Gandhi was quoted as saying, in response to AAP lawmakers protesting in Parliament.