Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that no public welfare schemes will be stopped in Delhi if the Bharatiya Janata Party wins power in the upcoming Assembly election.

Modi, however, said at a rally in the city’s Rohini area that “those who have contracts with dishonest people” in such schemes will be thrown out.

The prime minister claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party government’s schemes in the national capital existed only on paper. “The AAPda [disaster] government looted public money through these schemes,” Modi alleged. “The BJP will run these schemes with complete honesty…by bringing in honest people to implement them.”

Modi said that the Aam Aadmi Party falsely claims that the Centre does not provide the Delhi government with funds and obstructs its work. “Their sheeshmahal is an example of how big these lies are,” the prime minister said, referring to allegations of irregularities in the construction and renovation of former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s home.

Modi cited a Comptroller and Auditor General of India report quoted by The Indian Express, which said that while preliminary estimates pegged the cost of renovation at Rs 7.91 crore, the total cost increased to Rs 33.66 crore at the time of completion in 2022.

“You will be pained to know that when the people of Delhi were fighting the coronavirus, running around to get medicines and oxygen, their [AAP’s] entire focus was on building their sheeshmahal,” Modi alleged.

The prime minister also accused the Delhi government of not properly implementing the PM-Awas Yojana scheme for affordable housing, and of not providing electricity and sewage facilities in unauthorised colonies that were regularised.

Kejriwal, however, accused Modi of abusing the people of Delhi by criticising the city’s elected state government.

He alleged that the BJP failed to deliver on its 2020 poll promise to give ownership rights to farmers in Delhi’s rural areas. The Aam Aadmi Party chief also questioned why the Modi government had not notified the Delhi Master Plan 2041 and had not implemented the Delhi Land Pooling Policy.

The Delhi Assembly elections are expected to be held by February. The Election Commission has not yet announced the dates for the polls.