Several shops were sealed in Chandni Chowk’s Katra Neel on Thursday by the BJP-led MCD, triggering a strong response from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the MCD House, Ankush Narang, revealed that the BJP has revived the sealing drive immediately after coming to power in the MCD.
He called out the BJP for betraying the same traders who helped it form the government in Delhi by sealing their shops. He also highlighted that BJP leaders have long faced allegations of extorting traders—unsealing shops for those who pay and keeping others locked—and warned that AAP will not let Delhi relive the devastation of the BJP’s 2004–07 sealing campaign.
Addressing a press conference, AAP’s LoP in MCD House Ankush Narang stated, “As soon as the BJP comes to power in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), sealing begins in Delhi. On the auspicious occasion of Bhai Dooj on Thursday, shops and buildings numbered 583 and 602 in Gali Ghanteshwar, Katra Neel, Chandni Chowk, were sealed. Chandni Chowk is Delhi’s historic commercial hub, home to ancestral shops. We have been visiting Chandni Chowk since childhood—people from across Delhi buy their wedding and festive clothes from Katra Neel. This is a protected area of the walled city where businesses operate on the ground floor and people live upstairs. Yet, as soon as the BJP has taken charge of the MCD, it has started sealing these shops.”
Referring to the BJP’s own representatives, Ankush Narang said, “The BJP Member of Parliament from Chandni Chowk himself is a prominent leader of traders, and it is the traders who helped form the BJP government in Delhi this time. But now, the same BJP government is causing harm to traders. The so-called ‘four-engine’ BJP government has restarted the sealing drive in Chandni Chowk. In the coming days, the BJP is preparing to seal 22 to 25 more buildings in the area.”
“There have often been allegations that BJP members first seal shops and then demand money from traders. Where they receive money, they unseal the shops; where they don’t, the shops remain locked. Such a BJP government should be ashamed. The Member of Parliament who sits in power today because of the traders’ support should also feel ashamed. Delhi’s traders placed their faith in them, but today the same BJP has sealed shops within the heritage-protected zone of Chandni Chowk,” he added.
Highlighting BJP’s repeated misuse of legal grounds, Ankush Narang further said, “The BJP often cites court orders during sealing drives. When the sealing campaign was carried out between 2004 and 2007, the BJP was in power then as well. At that time too, it misled the court by presenting false facts and declaring commercial areas as residential to enable sealing. The BJP government provides wrong information to the court, and every time it comes to power, it restarts sealing. On one hand, the BJP seeks votes from traders with promises, and on the other, begins sealing as soon as it assumes power.”
He concluded by stating, “There should be no sealing on the old shops of Delhi’s traditional traders under any circumstances. The BJP’s 2004–07 sealing drive had already devastated Delhi. It has only been six months since the BJP returned to the MCD and eight months since it came to power in the Delhi assembly, yet it has again started a sealing drive in Chandni Chowk, the city’s historic business centre. The BJP neither thinks about the people of Delhi nor about the traders. There is no valid reason for this sealing. In the MCD, wherever ‘notes’ come in, sealing stops; where they don’t, it continues. This has been happening for years.”
