NEW DELHI: BJP leaders on Friday met Delhi Chief Electoral Officer and demanded action against an AAP spokesperson for allegedly terming their party’s candidate Rajesh Bhatia, a “Pakistani”, for the June 23 Rajinder Nagar Assembly bypoll.
A delegation of Delhi BJP leaders headed by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri accused the AAP spokesperson of “insulting” Bhatia and also violating the model code of conduct. In a news channel debate, the AAP spokesperson purportedly said that Bhatia’s ancestors “must have come to India from Pakistan, so he was a Pakistani”. He was replying to BJP’s attack on AAP candidate Durgesh Pathak as an outsider in Rajinder Nagar.
Pathak contested the 2020 Assembly polls from the Karawal Nagar seat and lost to the BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht. The bypoll to the Rajinder Nagar seat was necessitated after sitting AAP MLA Raghav Chadha was elected to the Rajya Sabha earlier this year from Punjab.
Bidhuri said that lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs came to India after Partition in 1947 and thousands of such families are settled in Rajinder Nagar. “By terming BJP candidate Rajesh Bhatia a Pakistani, the AAP spokesperson has not only insulted the entire community but also violated the model code of conduct,” he said.
Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra and MLA Ajay Mahawar said that Aam Aadmi Party is losing political ground in Rajinder Nagar and is therefore trying to “vitiate” the election campaigning. Residents of the area, especially the thousands of families who settled there following the Partition will not forgive the AAP, he said.
AAP losing ground: BJP
Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra said that AAP is losing political ground in Rajinder Nagar and is therefore trying to “vitiate” the election.