Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Pravesh Verma has opened a fresh front against Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of moving into what he described as a second “Sheesh Mahal” and using the issue to intensify the BJP’s wider attack on AAP’s claim of austere politics. Verma, who also holds the Public Works Department portfolio, displayed pictures at a press conference on Saturday and claimed they showed Kejriwal’s new official accommodation at Lodhi Estate. He called Kejriwal the “Rehman Dakait of Delhi”, drawing a political analogy with the film “Dhurandhar”, and alleged that the former chief minister had built another lavish residence after the controversy over the Civil Lines bungalow at 6, Flagstaff Road.
AAP rejected the charge, saying the images circulated by the BJP were fake. Senior party leaders said the visuals did not represent Kejriwal’s residence and warned that Verma and media outlets airing or publishing those pictures could face defamation action. The party also challenged the Delhi government to disclose the actual details of Kejriwal’s residence rather than rely on what it called politically motivated material.
The row erupted a day after Kejriwal moved into a Type-VII government bungalow at 95, Lodhi Estate, which had been allotted by the Centre following court directions in view of his position as AAP’s national convener. The shift gave the BJP an opening to revive its long-running attack over residential expenditure, while AAP framed the allotment as a lawful administrative matter rather than a privilege sought outside established norms.
Verma linked the Lodhi Estate residence to the earlier controversy around the renovation of Kejriwal’s official residence when he was chief minister. A Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in the Delhi Assembly had put the cost of renovation at 6, Flagstaff Road at about ₹33.6 crore, far above the initial estimate, with expenditure on ornamental and decorative items forming a substantial part of the total.
The BJP has repeatedly used the “Sheesh Mahal” phrase to accuse Kejriwal of abandoning the anti-corruption and common-citizen politics on which AAP was founded. Verma argued that work on the earlier residence continued during the COVID-19 crisis, when Delhi residents were struggling with shortages of medicines, hospital beds and oxygen. AAP has consistently said the attacks are part of a smear campaign designed to distract attention from governance failures and political defections.
The controversy comes at a difficult moment for AAP. Seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha members, including Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Swati Maliwal, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Rajinder Gupta and Harbhajan Singh, crossed over to the BJP on Friday, a move that has weakened the party’s parliamentary strength and raised questions over its cohesion before the Punjab Assembly election cycle.
Sanjay Singh said AAP would seek the disqualification of the defecting MPs, arguing that the move violated the anti-defection framework because a split by itself does not amount to a merger unless constitutional requirements are met. The BJP, however, has presented the defections as evidence that senior AAP figures have lost confidence in Kejriwal’s leadership and the party’s internal direction.
For Verma, the attack carries added political weight. He defeated Kejriwal from the New Delhi Assembly constituency in the 2025 election and later entered the Rekha Gupta government as deputy chief minister. His remarks therefore combine personal electoral symbolism with the BJP’s broader strategy of portraying AAP as a party that built its appeal on simplicity but became vulnerable to the same charges of privilege and opacity it once levelled against rivals.
AAP’s counterattack rests on two points: that the Lodhi Estate bungalow was officially allotted and that the images shown by the BJP have not been authenticated. Its leaders argue that the BJP is trying to convert a housing allotment into a corruption narrative at a time when AAP is dealing with defections and political pressure in Delhi and Punjab.