Attack on Kanhaiya Kumar Shows BJP's Desperation, Says Congress

Grand old party plays down the ongoing controversy involving AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal and Chief Minister Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar.

New Delhi: The attack on North East Delhi segment candidate Kanhaiya Kumar showed the BJP’s desperation and will go against the saffron party not only in the national capital, but also in neighbouring Haryana as well, the Congress said on Saturday. “The attack on our candidate Kanhaiya Kumar is highly condemnable. It shows the BJP’s desperation in the face of defeat. Such violence has no place in democracy. But, it will have no impact on us. Rather, the attack has exposed the BJP and the negative message has gone across the country. It will harm the saffron party not only in Delhi, but also in Haryana as well,” AICC in-charge of Delhi Dipak Babaria told ETV Bharat.

North East Delhi is one of the three seats being contested by the Congress out of the seven seats in Delhi where the party has fielded ex-JNU student’s union leader Kanhaiya Kumar against BJP’s Manoj Tiwari. The AAP is contesting four seats as part of an alliance.

In the neighbouring state of Haryana also, the Congress is contesting nine seats while AAP is contesting one seat as part of an alliance. All the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and 10 in Haryana would go to polls on May 25. The AICC functionary slammed the BJP saying the attacker was linked to the saffron party and dared to justify the incident on news channels.

“He was seen justifying the attack saying it was a punishment for Kanhaiya’s alleged remarks against the country made earlier. All those are false charges to defame the JNU student’s union leader. The people know what is the truth. It is the BJP which plays divisive politics and is trying to defame our candidate. They are worried over the response that Kanhaiya is getting,” said Babaria.

The AICC functionary played down the ongoing controversy around AAP leaders Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal and Bibhav Kumar, the aide of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying it was an internal matter of the ally, but accused the BJP of trying to fish in troubled waters.

Both Bibhav and Maliwal had filed complaints against each other with the police over an incident, which triggered a blame game a few days ago. However, Bibhav was arrested on Saturday based on the complaint lodged by Maliwal whose charges have been questioned by the AAP.

“The Swati Maliwal-Bibhav Kumar issue is an internal matter of the AAP. The police are investigating the case and the law will take its course but I want to say that the BJP is trying to play politics over the controversy by protesting against Bibhav,” said Babaria.

“The controversy will have no adverse impact on the polls as the alliance is doing fine on the ground and is raising public issues like unemployment and price rise. Our leader Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Delhi on Saturday where he will appeal to support all the seven alliance candidates. Kejriwal is already campaigning for the alliance candidates in the city and workers from both the parties are going door to door,” he added.