MCD polls: Cong names Tytler to election panel, kicks up a row

The Congress on Thursday named former union minister Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as a member of the party’s election committee ahead of the municipal polls slated for December 4, with the move being heavily criticised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party

The Congress on Thursday named former union minister Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as a member of the party’s election committee ahead of the municipal polls slated for December 4, with the move being heavily criticised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party.

Congress leader Jagdish Tytler is an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. (HT archives)

A press release issued by the Congress and signed by party general secretary KC Venugopal said, “The AICC has approved the proposal for the constitution of the following committees for the upcoming Elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi - 2022, with immediate effect,” with Tytler’s name at number 8 of the 40-member pradesh election committee.

Others on the committee include Delhi Congress president Anil Chaudhary and senior party leaders Ajay Maken, Sandeep Dikshit, Arvinder Singh Lovely and Alka Lamba.

Other committees announced by the party include the campaign, coordination, manifesto, media, publicity and digital and social media committees.

Responding to Tytler’s inclusion in the Congress’s list, the BJP accused the party of “rubbing salt in the wounds” of Sikhs.

“@INCIndia rubs salt on wounds of Sikhs of 1984 carnage by inducting Jagdish Tytler in their Delhi State Election Committee. It shows that they have no repentance…,” BJP spokesperson RP Singh tweeted.

Meanwhile, the AAP said the decision to include Tytler in the committee was an “unpardonable insult”.

Congress has been brazenly subjugating the entire Sikh community to an unpardonable insult... Appointment of Tytler as member PEC for MCD polls Is quite disgraceful & reprehensible,” Malvinder Singh Kang, the spokesperson for the AAP’s Punjab unit, tweeted.

Tytler has been accused of leading mobs against Sikhs in the riots that followed then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, leading to the death of around 3,000 Sikhs in the Capital.