Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday repeated the Bharatiya Janata Party’s claims that Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal constructed a “sheesh mahal”, or glass palace, when he was the chief minister of Delhi.

“Arvind Kejriwal had a small car when he came into politics,” Gandhi said while speaking at an election rally in Delhi’s Patparganj area. “He promised to do a new kind of politics. But when the poor needed help, he was nowhere to be seen.”

The Assembly elections in the national capital are scheduled to take place on February 5 and the votes will be counted on February 8.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress are contesting the elections separately, despite being members of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level.

Gandhi’s remarks on Tuesday echoed the claims made by the BJP about the chief minister’s official residence in the national capital at 6, Flagstaff Road.

The BJP has repeatedly claimed that the residence was turned into a “sheesh mahal” when Kejriwal was the chief minister. The party has alleged that renovations worth more than Rs 40 crore were carried out inside the residence.

On Tuesday, Gandhi also accused Kejriwal of orchestrating the “largest liquor scam” in the history of the country. The Congress leader was referring to Kejriwal’s alleged involvement in the liquor policy case.

The Enforcement Directorate is investigating allegations of money laundering in the liquor policy case based on a first information report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The two central agencies have alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government modified Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy by increasing the commission for wholesalers from 5% to 12%. This allegedly facilitated the receipt of bribes from wholesalers with substantial market share and turnover.

“You [Kejriwal] had said you would do clean politics, but committed the biggest liquor scam,” the Congress leader alleged. “We have also seen the picture of Kejriwalji's house. He lives in sheesh mahal.”

Gandhi also called Aam Aadmi Party MLA Manish Sisodia the “architect” of the alleged liquor scam. “Patparganj MLA Manish Sisodia was the architect of the liquor scam with Arvind Kejriwal and that is why he ran away from the seat,” he added.

Both Kejriwal and Sisodia had been arrested in connection with the liquor policy case. The Supreme Court granted bail to Kejriwal on September 13 and to Sisodia on August 9.

The Congress leader also claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party chief was nowhere to be found during the violence in Delhi, which was an apparent reference to the 2020 riots in the national capital.

Fifty-three persons were killed and hundreds more injured in the rioting that broke out in North East Delhi between February 23 and February 26, 2020, after protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act triggered a violent backlash against Muslim demonstrators. At least 38 of those killed were Muslim.

Gandhi remark’s on Tuesday came amid discussions within the INDIA bloc about its leadership and the role of the Congress.

In the run-up to the elections in Delhi, several members of the bloc, including the Samajwadi Party, the Trinamool Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) have extended their support to the Aam Aadmi Party.