NEW DELHI: Newly elected East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir on Saturday criticised Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for vitiating election campaign in his parliamentary constituency by making “frivolous charges” against him.
“I want to tell the CM that elections come and go but the day you lose your conscience, you lose everything in life. He (Kejriwal) stooped so low just to win one seat,” he said in a stinging statement to accuse Kejriwal of lowering ethical standard for electoral gain.
Gambhir was referring to the distribution of ‘obscene and derogatory’ pamphlet during the poll campaigning. His rival Atishi and other AAP leaders had blamed him for distribution of the pamphlets containing disparaging remarks against her. Atishi also lodged a complaint with the NCW against Gambhir although it was not clear who had distributed the leaflets.
On Saturday, the cricketer-turned-politician said he decided not to respond when the AAP registered an FIR against him but it went on to make deplorable allegations. “When my candidature was announced, I specifically told my team and party workers that we would not indulge in negative campaign. I asked them not to run a negative even on social media. We decided to go people with a vision,” he said at the in formal media meet at the Delhi BJP headquarters.
Gambhir defeated Arvinder Singh Lovely of Congress by 3.91 lakh votes. He got 6.96 votes while Atishi ended third with 2.19 lakh votes.
On his party’s landslide victory, Gambhir said negative campaign could never work and the people have shown that they are above all these things. “They (opposition) worked just to defeat a single person (Modi) but time has changed. Youth of the country want development and employment.”
He said real challenge for him had just begun. He added that women security, clean air, and clean water are on the top of his priority list. “Work begins now, which is a challenging task. We did campaigning for a month but we will need to work for five years. It is a time to prove ourselves. Whatever I had promised, I will fulfill them. My wish is to make East Delhi a better constituency.”