In Bihar To Campaign, NDTV Asked Delhi Chief Minister About AQI. She Said...

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday refused to answer NDTV's question about air pollution in the national capital. Campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar - voting for the first phase of the 2025 Bihar Assembly election is on Thursday - she was asked about hazardous AQI readings.

However, instead of replying she turned away from the camera.

Delhi woke Tuesday to a toxic blanket of smog that has choked the city since Diwali last month - when the Supreme Court allowed 'green' firecrackers to be burst - and dropped the AQI to (familiar) hazardous levels. AQI levels this morning was a 'very poor' 309 (on a scale of 500).

The Aam Aadmi Party - in power for 11 years till the BJP won February's election - has slammed Rekha Gupta's administration for its "complete failure" resulting in a "public health emergency".

🔴#BREAKING | Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta in Bihar for poll campaign, ignores question on Delhi's rising pollution level #BiharElections pic.twitter.com/faZeaev7uI

— NDTV (@ndtv) November 4, 2025

AAP boss and ex-Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on X the BJP's 'four-engine government', a jibe at the BJP heading the federal, state, and local administrations, had "ruined everything".

"I appeal to the people of Delhi to take care of themselves - this government is not going to do anything for you," he said in Hindi on X, while his party also accused the BJP government of fudging AQI data.

BJP Hits Back

The BJP's Delhi unit chief, Virendra Sachdev, denied that claim.

READ | 'Only 9 Delhi AQI Posts Worked On Diwali': Top Court Told Of 'Missing Data'

He accused the AAP leader of making "baseless" and "fabricated" statements, and said it is normal for chief ministers and ministers from different states to travel and campaign during elections.

"If it is wrong for Rekha Gupta to go to Bihar during the pollution period, then what about flood-affected Punjab's Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's visit to Gujarat?"

Toxic Post-Diwali Smog Returns In Delhi 

Despite a 77.5 per cent drop in stubble burning, i.e., agricultural waste - normally a significant reason for air pollution in Delhi during the winter - the air quality in the national capital plummeted to a five-year low on the morning after Diwali, i.e., October 21.

READ | 'Green' Crackers Failed. Delhi Suffers Worst Post-Diwali Air In 5 Years

Average PM2.5 levels reached shocking averages of 488 micrograms per cubic metre - nearly 100 times the exposure limit - and represented a catastrophic 212 per cent increase from pre-Diwali levels.

The highest single reading? A literally eye-watering 675 micrograms per cubic metres on Diwali night.

With input from agencies

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