AAP, BJP trade barbs over alleged spike in dengue, malaria cases

A political war of words erupted on Wednesday between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the rising cases of dengue, malaria and chikungunya in the national capital.

The clash comes at a time when Delhi has reported two dengue-related deaths this year, according to data on vector-borne diseases released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) earlier this week.

AAP’s Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the MCD House, Ankush Narang, accused the BJP-led MCD and Delhi Government of concealing data and failing to take preventive measures against vector-borne diseases. He alleged that the civic body released its latest disease report after a gap of nearly a month, during which over 300 dengue, 200 malaria, and 60 chikungunya cases were recorded, along with two deaths.

“After hiding pollution figures, the BJP government has now suppressed data on vector-borne diseases. This is the highest number of cases in the past five years,” Narang said, accusing the administration of failing to conduct fogging, anti-larvae drives or awareness campaigns.

He further linked the surge in cases to the recent strike by Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS) workers, saying that had the BJP resolved the issue earlier, the outbreak could have been contained. “For 33 days, fogging and larvae checks came to a standstill. The people of Delhi suffered while the Mayor did nothing to resolve the crisis,” Narang added.

Narang demanded Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh’s resignation, alleging that Delhi has seen the worst vector-borne disease figures in five years under his leadership.

Responding sharply, Singh dismissed AAP’s allegations as “completely misleading, baseless and politically motivated.” He said the MCD had been working round-the-clock to safeguard citizens’ health, carrying out extensive fogging, anti-larvae spraying and awareness campaigns across the city.

“The AAP is presenting false figures to mislead citizens. This October, only 377 dengue cases were reported, compared to 2,431 cases in October 2024 and 2,003 in October 2023 when the AAP was managing the government and the MCD,” the Mayor said.

He added that the civic body had sprayed mosquito repellents in over 30.5 lakh households, inspected 3.21 crore homes, issued 1.43 lakh legal notices and taken action in 28,028 cases where mosquito breeding was found. “These figures prove that under BJP’s leadership, the MCD is taking consistent and effective measures to prevent mosquito-borne diseases,” he asserted.

Singh also accused AAP of attempting to “instigate MTS (Public Health) employees to go on strike” to create chaos and exploit the situation politically. “The MTS workers ultimately showed faith in the BJP-led MCD and ended the strike,” he said.