Delhi Election 2025: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticised Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia for sending his son to a private school and availing a loan of ₹1.5 crore from three individuals to study in Canada.
The saffron party asked why the former education minister of Delhi didn't send his son to any government school in the national capital, which AAP claims to have revolutionised in the last decade. These charges have raised the political temperature ahead of the Delhi polls in February. The ruling AAP is hoping to retain power as it takes on the BJP and the Congress in the assembly polls.
"According to mega-thug Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi liquor minister Manish Sisodia, Delhi schools have become world class, but according to the affidavit: Earlier his own son studied in a private school and now he is studying in Canada. Why did he not send him to a government school? Why did he send him to Canada instead of travelling to college in Delhi's bus and metro?" BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said in a post on X accompanied by a copy of election affidavit filed by Sisodia.
Sisodia filed his nomination papers on January 16 for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. Sisodia, who represents the Patparganj seat, is the AAP candidate from Jangpura constituency in Delhi Assembly polls, 2025.
“Not only this, Manish Sisodia took a loan of ₹1.5 crore for his son's education, but not from a bank, but from individuals. Why so? All the leaders and ministers of AAP are hypocrites. They only do politics in the name of students but do nothing for them,” Malviya said.
Sisodia has declared a family net worth of ₹1.4 crore in his election affidavit. Of this, Sisodia has declared ₹57.43 lakh worth assets in his name and ₹82.87 lakh in his wife Seema Sisodia's name.
In the liabilities section, the affidavit shows that the family has an outstanding education loan of ₹1.54 crore. The loan has been taken in Manish's wife Seema’s name from three individuals — Romesh Chander Mittal, Guneet Arora and Deepali.
The elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly are scheduled for February 5. The results will be announced on February 8. The Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, is pitted against the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress party in the elections.
In September 2024, Sisodia, speaking at Jantar Mantar, recounted the financial difficulties and said that he had to beg for help to pay for his son's fees. "In 2002, when I was a journalist, I bought a flat worth ₹5 lakh, it was taken away. I had ₹ ₹10 lakh in my account, that was taken away too. I had to beg for help to pay my son's fees. I had told tell them that I have to pay my son's fees and ED has frozen by bank account," Sisodia said.
Sisodia was in jail for nearly one-and-a-half years in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam case before he was granted bail August 2024. While in jail, he resigned as Delhi's deputy chief minister.
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