The BJP on Friday conducted a ‘Purvanchal Samman March’ from Ashoka Road to the residence of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal against the latter’s alleged remarks against the people of Purvanchal.

The saffron party accused Kejriwal of disrespecting the people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

Advertisement

“Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have a history of disrespecting the people from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand…How did you (Kejriwal) dare to call people from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand as fake…The promises of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP are fake…The people of Purvanchal will take revenge on February 5,” BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said at a press conference here.

He alleged that Kejriwal recently referred to people from UP and Bihar as ‘farzi’ (fake) and accused them of “getting fake voter ID cards made” in Delhi.

Meanwhile, the city police used water cannons to disperse the protesters when they tried to cross the barricades put up near Kejriwal’s residence at Feroze Shah Road. The police also detained BJP workers.

Retorting this statement, AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj told ANI, “I want to ask the Purvanchali leaders of Delhi, where was Manoj Tiwari when JP Nadda called Purvanchalis as infiltrators. Where was the Purvanchal Morcha?

“Where was Manoj Tiwari when a ‘chhath ghat’ was destroyed in my constituency? We organised a press conference today to tell that the votes of people of Purvanchal are being cut in Delhi, because they vote for AAP,” he added.

The dispute arose after an AAP delegation led by Arvind Kejriwal met the Election Commission to raise concerns about alleged voter irregularities in the New Delhi Legislative Assembly. The party highlighted a significant surge in voter registrations and deletions on the seat while alleging a “voter fraud” taking place at a large scale.

“The Chief Election Commissioner is out, but we met with the other two commissioners. One of the issues we raised was that in the New Delhi Legislative Assembly, between December 15 and January 7, a total of 5,500 votes were registered in 22 days.

“The total votes in this assembly are 1,00,000. This means that 5.5 per cent of the votes were registered in the last 22 days, which clearly indicates some irregularities. There are issues with these applications,” Kejriwal told reporters after meeting the election commissioners on Thursday.

The security has been beefed up outside the residence of AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Both parties are vying to secure the significant Purvanchali voter base in the capital, with the Assembly elections drawing closer.