BJP, AAP lock horns over sanitation: Kejriwal evokes Shravan Kumar

AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal likened himself to a mythological character from Ramayana in what was seen as a message to the majority Hindu vote bank in Gujarat. At the centre of the war of words was Delhi’s largest landfill site at Ghazipur. Kejriwal visited the site and blamed the BJP, which ruled the municipal corporations for over a decade, for the civic mess.

BJP workers protested with black flags and slogans ahead of the AAP convenor’s visit. AAP workers countered with slogans against BJP. Elections to the unified MCD are likely by the end of 2022 or early 2023.

At the landfill site, Kejriwal likened himself to Shravan Kumar, a character from the Ramayana who took his blind parents for pilgrimage on his shoulders. Slamming the BJP protests as “illogical”, Kejriwal said that he had sent Delhi’s elderly to free-of-cost pilgrimages like Shravan Kumar.

“For once, I urge BJP voters to forget party affiliations. We will clean up Delhi. I want to tell the mothers in Delhi, vote for your son who took you to pilgrimages,” he said.