Ramesh Bidhuri of the BJP is running for the Delhi assembly election from the Kalkaji seat, which is currently held by Atishi of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
New Delhi: Ramesh Bidhuri, a BJP leader, has stirred up controversy once more with remarks he made, this time regarding Delhi Chief Minister Atishi’s name.
Mr. Bidhuri is running for the Delhi assembly election from the Kalkaji constituency, which is currently held by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member Atishi.
Mr. Bidhuri brought up the subject of Atishi’s surname change at a rally in Rohini, Delhi, on Sunday. This was a contentious issue in the past, particularly when Atishi ran from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign.
Gautam Gambhir of the BJP defeated Atishi by a margin of more than 4.7 lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The Atishi controversy rocked Mr. Bidhuri this evening after he had just apologized for another “sexist” remark he had made against Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The BJP leader was heard on an undated video claiming that if the party won power, it would make all the roads in Kalkaji, south Delhi, look like the “cheeks of Priyanka Gandhi.”
Later, Mr. Bidhuri informed news agency ANI that his words on Priyanka Gandhi were related to those of Lalu Yadav, the former chief minister of Bihar, who allegedly threatened to make the state’s roads “as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks” years prior.
Even though Lalu Yadav’s one-liner has been brought up time and time again over the years, he denied ever saying it in 2010 and accused his opponents of misquoting him.
However, Mr. Bidhuri volunteered to retract his statements.
“Such claims have been made previously. I made that statement in light of Lalu Yadav’s remarks. Even when he [Lalu Yadav] was a minister in their cabinet, the Congress said nothing about it. The BJP politician stated, “I apologize for my remarks and take them back if they have offended anyone.”
Mr. Bidhuri was criticized by AAP president Arvind Kejriwal, who claimed that the BJP and its leaders had gone beyond the bounds of “shamelessness.”
“BJP politicians are insulting Atishi ji, the chief minister of Delhi. The affront of a female chief minister will not be accepted by the people of Delhi. For this, every woman in Delhi will exact revenge.
In a statement, the AAP said that Mr. Bidhuri’s “abusive remarks” against a female chief minister revealed the “anti-women” mentality of the BJP.
The AAP added in a statement, “If he acts like this now, just think of the treatment regular women would receive if he were to become an MLA by mistake.”
It is anticipated that Delhi’s assembly elections would take place in February. In the last two national capital assembly elections, the Congress, which had controlled Delhi for 15 years in a row, failed to secure a single seat. In the 2020 assembly elections, the BJP received eight seats while the AAP secured 62 of the 70 seats.
