The shoe attack on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday triggered angry reaction from AAP leaders, who sought to link BJP to the incident. The AAP was quick to blame BJP for the incident with Delhi culture minister Kapil Mishra alleging that the attacker had telephoned a Delhi BJP leader before the incident. The BJP, on its part, condemned the incident, but said Mr Kejriwal should introspect why he is facing such attacks repeatedly.
Mr Mishra claimed that Ved Prakash Sharma, who hurled shoe at the chief minister, was in touch with a BJP leader before the attack. He demanded that Mr Sharma’s call records should be probed. “Call details of Ved Prakash Sharma should be probed. He called a BJP Delhi leader right before attacking,” Mr Mishra tweeted.
AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai said, “We can say this with authority that the attacker was in touch with a senior BJP leader of the Delhi unit.”
AAP leader Kumar Vishwas said the attack shows frustration of rival parties ahead of Punjab polls. “Dear Conspirators, This #OddEven is going to grace your Aaka’s a big Zero in Punjab keep on throwing your frustrations wrapped in Ink-Shoes,” he said.
Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said that these incidents show that people are disappointed with the party which came to power by showing golden dreams. He said that Mr Kejriwal must realise the anguish of people against the traffic rationing scheme. “Whether it was stage managed or a real protest, hurling shoe on CM is wrong. But Kejriwal must realise anguish of Delhites ag #OddEven scam,” Mr Upadhyay tweeted.
He added that there is a possibility that Mr Kejriwal’s old political colleagues may be behind the incident and this may also be the result of disappointment due to the betrayal with those colleagues.
“We are more worried about the fact that the supporters of AAP, which always talk about right of dissent, have brutally assaulted the political opponent in the Secretariat itself. We demand the Delhi police to take action against the youth who attacked the chief minister, but at the same time action should also be taken against the persons who had assaulted the youth,” added Mr Upadhyay.
“The BJP has no role in the incident of a shoe being thrown at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Ved Prakash, who was involved in it, is an associate of an AAP cadre,” Delhi BJP spokesman Praveen Kapoor said in a statement.
