NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi Marlena, who is contesting from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, on Sunday took a dig at the Congress party, alleging that she had been forced to speak about her caste and religion due to that party’s dirty politics.
“I have been forced to comment on my caste and religion because of Congress’ dirty politics. I am from a Punjabi Hindu family. My father’s name is Vijay Singh, and my husband’s name Praveen Singh. I am from a Kshatriya family,” she told media persons here.
“As far as my last name is concerned, Marlena comes from the mixture of Marlina Marx and Lenin, which comes from my parents’ leftist ideology.”
Her comments came in the wake of Asif Khan, former Congress MLA from Okhla, calling her a Jew in a viral video, and advising Muslims not to vote for her, allegedly in the presence of her opponent from the Congress in the East Delhi constituency, Arvinder Singh Lovely.
FOLLOW OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE HERE
“Today we challenge the Congress party to get into elections on the grounds of the work done by them. I challenge them to take up issue-based politics and participate in the elections,” Marlena told the media here.
“By resorting to such blatant lies, they are sending a message that Arvinder Singh Lovely has already lost and that he will be forced to forfeit his deposit as well,” she said, adding: “Arvinder Singh Lovely is a candidate unable to decide which party he belongs to.”
“They can’t question the work done by the Aam Aadmi Party and are not accountable for their own work, which is why they have brought up caste politics,” she said.
She then challenged the Congress party to respond to the comments made by Khan.
“I question Rahul Gandhi if he agrees with the lies stated by their former MLA Asif Mohammad Khan. Will he (Rahul) come out and apologise for his statement? Will he take action against him and chuck him out of the party?” she asked.