Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi today stoked a controversy by putting her party’s scarf around the statue of freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai in Krishna Nagar before filing her nomination, which drew sharp criticism from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal.
Before filing her nomination, Bedi paid tribute to Lala Lajpat Rai and also cleaned his statue in Krishna Nagar and put a saffron coloured BJP scarf (patka) having the party symbol around it. However, she removed it from the statue a few minutes later.
The former IPS officer also met tea and newspaper sellers in Krishna Nagar before taking out her roadshow and inquired about the kind of issues they were facing
Reacting to the incident, Arvind Kejriwal said that she should not “saffronize” the freedom fighters.
“At least spare the freedom fighters. At least do not saffronize them free fighters. A freedom fighter does not belong to any party, he belongs to the country. We should not divide him into BJP or Congress or this and that party,” Kejriwal told reporters here.
Bedi will contest assembly elections from Krishna Nagar constituency, which is a BJP’s stronghold.
Delhi will go to Assembly poll on February 7 while counting of voters will be held on February 10.
Slamming Kejriwal for his attack on her for putting the BJP scarf around the statue of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bedi wondered whether the AAP convener had “never been to a temple”.
“Has he never garlanded an idol with a ‘chunni’ and taken it back?
“When you go to a temple and garland an idol, does the priest not give it back to you? Is it not my duty to take this blessing from out martyrs who have given us freedom?,” Bedi said here.