Excise policy case: BJP to burn ‘corruption pyres’ on Holi in Delhi

The BJP move came days after the AAP on Thursday announced that starting Monday, it will launch a door-to-door campaign and hold 2,500 corner meetings (nukkad sabhas) in an attempt to inform Delhi residents about “the misuse of power” by the BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday announced that it will burn a series of pyres in the national capital as part of the “Holika Dahan of corruption and scams” to highlight the purported role of senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia in the alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy scam 2021-22.

Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva said that as per Hindu religious beliefs, a pyre is burnt a day before Holi to end all evil deeds. (ANI)

The BJP move came days after the AAP on Thursday announced that starting Monday, it will launch a door-to-door campaign and hold 2,500 corner meetings (nukkad sabhas) in an attempt to inform Delhi residents about “the misuse of power” by the BJP.

Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva said that as per Hindu religious beliefs, a pyre is burnt a day before Holi to end all evil deeds. “The liquor scam and corruption are the prominent socioadministrative evils, so we decided to use the occasion of burning the Holi pyre to pray and mark the end of corruption and scams rampant under the AAP government,” he said.

The AAP did not immediately respond to the BJP’s Sunday announcement.

Sachdeva said that he, along with leader of the opposition in the Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, will lead the BJP protest at the Hanuman temple near Connaught place. “(Chandni Chowk MP) Dr Harsh Vardhan will participate in a meeting near Shastri Nagar Metro station, while (former MP) Vijay Goel will preside over the event near Town hall in Chandni Chowk,” the BJP said in a statement.

A party functionary, on condition of anonymity, said all BJP legislators will burn similar pyres in their respective assembly constituencies, and party MPs Ramesh Bidhuri and Hans Raj Hans will also take part.

The AAP has earlier said that senior party leaders Sisodia and Satyendar Jain were arrested through the “misuse of the central agencies.” AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said, “Beginning March 6, meetings will be organised at every polling station of Delhi and on March 10, we will hold corner meetings in every neighbourhood to reach out to Delhi residents. People will be informed about the BJP’s authoritarianism and the misuse of central agencies.”