A day after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for fielding Bansuri Swaraj from the New Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha elections, claiming she had represented “anti-national forces” in court, she hit back at Delhi’s ruling party over its choice of candidate from the seat.

Bansuri Swaraj is a Supreme Court lawyer and daughter of former union minister and Delhi CM Sushma Swaraj. She has replaced union minister and current Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Lekhi from the New Delhi constituency and will be going up against AAP’s Somnath Bharti, also a lawyer.

Earlier on Sunday, Delhi Minister Atishi said at a press conference that Swaraj should apologise to the people of the country for taking up such cases.

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“Bansuri Swaraj has repeatedly defended fugitive Lalit Modi in court, who has fled the country after embezzling lakhs of crores of rupees… When violence occurred in Manipur and two women were stripped and paraded, Bansuri Swaraj stood for the BJP-led Centre in the Supreme Court. Now, she will ask for votes from women in the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. When the Chandigarh mayoral elections were held and there was an attempt to tamper with votes… Swaraj stood for the fake mayor from the BJP in the SC,” said senior AAP leader and minister Atishi.

She also demanded that the BJP replace Swaraj as its candidate from the constituency.

Hitting back, Swaraj questioned the AAP on its choice of candidate, who was allegedly beaten up by his own cadre in Rajendra Nagar on Saturday.

Responding to the AAP’s allegations, she said, “I would like to ask the AAP — why have you fielded a candidate who was beaten up by his own cadre in Rajendra Nagar yesterday (Saturday)? They have named a candidate who is not liked by his own party members. They can put allegations against us but people will give them a reply in the elections.”

Somnath Bharti, the INDIA bloc candidate from the New Delhi constituency, also demanded that Swaraj and the BJP should “apologise for such a blunder”.

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During the press conference, Atishi also spoke about outgoing BJP MP Harsh Vardhan’s decision to bow out of electoral politics.

Vardhan is known for his honesty and hard work for the country, the people of his parliamentary constituency and his assembly constituency, she said.

“He always raised issues of public interest and spoke for them. I think it has become very clear that just as he was removed from the position of health minister at one time for raising some issues, today, it seems that perhaps his ticket has been cut due to his honesty,” she claimed.

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Barring North East Delhi, where the BJP has named Manoj Tiwari for a third term, it has fielded new faces from four constituencies — New Delhi (Swaraj), West Delhi (Kamaljeet Sehrawat), South Delhi (Ramvir Singh Bidhuri) and Chandni Chowk (Praveen Khandelwal).

The BJP is yet to name its candidates for East Delhi — where MP Gautam Gambhir has said he requested party chief JP Nadda to relieve him of his political duties — and North West Delhi.

(With inputs from PTI)