Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders on Sunday (February 16, 2025) said the stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station was a glaring example of “gross mismanagement” and lack of crowd control measures.
Condoling the loss of lives, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said the death of the devotees headed to Mahakumbh was extremely sad and painful.
Also read: Delhi Railway station stampede live updates
Hitting back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia wrote on X “Aapda Sarkar…”
The word ‘AAPda’ (disaster) was used by BJP leaders ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls to describe the Aam Aadmi Party’s alleged corruption and failures.
The BJP ousted AAP from power in Delhi after 10 years winning 48 of 70 seats.
AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said the stampede shook all, and called it a glaring example of “gross mismanagement” and lack of crowd control measures.
“On February 11, I had raised this issue in Parliament, warning about the urgent need for better management protocols at railway stations, but the government ignored it,” he said on X.
He demanded that those responsible for the stampede must be held accountable, and emphasised immediate reforms to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and other senior leaders have cancelled all their political programmes for the day in view of the incident, a party statement said.
Several BJP leaders, including national vice president and Delhi unit incharge Baijayant Panda, MLA Kailash Gahlot, former Union Minister Harsh Vardhan also condoled the loss of lives and prayed for speedy recovery of the injured.
The stampede on Saturday (February 16, 2025) night left 18 people dead. It was preceded by a swell in crowd of passengers waiting to board trains for Prayagraj — where the Maha Kumbh is underway — on platform number 14 and 15 of the station.
