Atishi: Bidhuri may be BJP’s CM choice

The AAP kicked off the ‘Kejriwal vs whom in the BJP’ campaign, challenging the BJP to reveal its candidate for CM.

Chief minister Atishi on Friday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may project former MP Ramesh Bidhuri as their CM face for the Delhi assembly elections.

CM Atishi

“Reliable sources have revealed that the ‘gaali-galauch party’ has decided to make Ramesh Bidhuri, the leader who uses the most abusive language, their chief ministerial candidate. Tomorrow, they might announce their candidates, and within two to three days, they will declare Ramesh Bidhuri as their CM face,” Atishi said at a press conference on Friday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) kicked off the ‘Kejriwal vs whom in the BJP’ campaign, challenging the BJP to reveal its candidate for CM.

BJP hit back by saying that the AAP should stop dreaming about winning the polls. “It would have been better if Atishi Marlena, instead of speculating about who the BJP’s CM candidate will be, had questioned how Arvind Kejriwal, who is bound by restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court, dares to dream of becoming the CM again,” BJP Lok Sabha MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat said on Friday.

Polling for the Delhi assembly elections is scheduled for February 5 and the votes will be counted on February 8. So far the BJP has announced 29 candidates for the 70 seats, but not their CM candidate.

Atishi’s comments come during the recent row where Bidhuri made “derogatory and inflammatory” remarks involving Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and Atishi and sparked outrage.

“So, if the people of Delhi press the lotus button, they will get Ramesh Bidhuri as their CM...In the ‘gaali-galauch party,’ the person who uses the most indecent language and the most abuses progresses the fastest. Ramesh Bidhuri used abusive language in Parliament, words so indecent that no civilized person in this country would use them. He abuses even his own party members,” the CM said, adding that people of Delhi now have two options to choose from.

“On one side, there is Arvind Kejriwal, an IIT Kharagpur graduate, engineer, former IRS officer, and Income Tax commissioner. He has provided 24-hour electricity and water to every home, improved government schools, offered free healthcare, organised pilgrimages for the elderly, and free bus rides for women. On the other side, there is Ramesh Bidhuri, who uses abusive language and indecent remarks about women. The contrast is clear: the educated leader Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party versus the abusive leader Ramesh Bidhuri of the ‘gaali-galauch party’. I am confident that the people of Delhi will prefer an educated and hardworking chief minister,” Atishi said.

Meanwhile, Sehrawat said in a statement, “When someone says that Arvind Kejriwal is an IIT graduate, so he is entitled to become the Chief Minister, they insult democracy as in a democracy, a Chief Minister is not chosen based on educational degrees but on the support of elected representatives.”