NEW DELHI: A bitter political confrontation ensued in Delhi on Wednesday over BJP leader Parvesh Verma allegedly distributing Rs 1,100 among women of the New Delhi constituency, with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal calling him a “traitor” and CM Atishi demanding his arrest.
Kejriwal, who has held the seat since 2013 and is the AAP’s candidate from the constituency for the upcoming Assembly polls, also claimed that Verma is the BJP’s chief ministerial face in the elections and asked Delhiites if they wanted such a CM.
A defiant Verma, however, asserted that he has launched a scheme to help women with the financial assistance of Rs 1,100 through the ‘Rashtriya Swabhiman’, an organisation founded by his father.
In a dig at the AAP chief, the BJP leader said he was only helping people and “not distributing liquor like him”. The former Delhi CM lashed out at Verma in over a dozen posts on X. “They are giving Rs 1,100 to each voter every day and asking them to vote for their party. Are you helping the needy or openly buying votes? Your father must be ashamed of a traitor son like you,” Kejriwal assailed the BJP leader in one of the posts in Hindi.
In another post, he said, “According to sources, the BJP is going to declare Parvesh Verma as its CM face. Would the people of Delhi want such a person to be their CM?”
The AAP chief claimed that he visited many areas in New Delhi where people told him about being offered Rs 1,100 and also asked women of Delhi to visit Verma’s house and demand the money from him. At a press conference here, Atishi alleged that Rs 1,100 each was being given to women from slum clusters at Verma’s Windsor Place residence and their voter ID details were being noted down.
Denying the charges, Verma said the money was distributed as part of a scheme by ‘Rashtriya Swabhiman’. “I ask the Delhi Police, CBI, ED to conduct raids at the bungalow where crores of rupees are kept,” Atishi said, adding AAP will make formal complaints to the police and the EC.