MCD polls: BJP attacks Arvind Kejriwal after former minister Gautam named in AAP’s star campaigners’ list

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The BJP on Saturday stepped up its attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, calling him the “biggest anti-Hindu”, after the AAP included former minister Rajendra Pal Gautam in its list of star campaigners for the civic polls here.

Whether it is Gautam or AAP’s Gujarat leader Gopal Italia, their words against Hindu deities reflect Kejriwal’s “poisonous” mindset, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia alleged in a press conference here.

“The facts will show that Kejriwal is the biggest hatemonger and anti-Hindu who changes colour and becomes a ‘chunavi’ Hindu during elections,” Bhatia said.

Gautam quit as minister in the Delhi government last month amid a row over attending a religious conversion event in which Hindu deities were allegedly insulted. On Friday, he was named as one of the AAP’s star campaigners for December’s Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections.

Bhatia also alleged that AAP leaders’ anti-Hindu comments showed that the party and its leader (Kejriwal) were only interested in the votes of one community. He also claimed that the AAP-run government in Delhi gave funds to the Waqf Board and provided salaries to imams.

Showing a newspaper advertisement of the Delhi government on Diwali, Bhatia said, “You can see the photo of ‘maha thug’ here but no photos of Lakshmi, Ganesh despite demanding that images of the deities be printed in currency notes.”

Bhatia had last week called Kejriwal a maha (great) thug after conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar alleged that he was forced to bring “over 20 people to contribute Rs 500 crore towards his party (AAP)”. The AAP has dismissed the charges.

The BJP spokesperson alleged that Kejriwal’s actions exposed his “doublespeak” and “hypocrisy”.

“In the past he said his grandmother told him that Lord Rama could not live in a temple constructed by dismantling a structure. Later, he went on to tell people that he would take them to a pilgrimage of Ayodhya to see the grand temple of Lord Rama being constructed there,” he said.

In Gujarat, Kejriwal made state unit chief Gopal Italia, who had said that women are “exploited” at temples, a star campaigner, Bhatia said.

“Why is it so that Kejriwal can find only such leaders like Gautam and Italia who hurt Hindu sentiments to make his party’s star campaigners,” he asked.

The war of words between the AAP and the BJP has escalated in recent weeks with the two parties getting ready to slug it out in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Gujarat Assembly elections.