New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Wednesday accused the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) of acting as the B-Team of the Aam Aadmi Party and challenged it to protest in Punjab over the killing of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh, also known as Jhota.
At a press conference, Gupta additionally accused opposition parties and other organisations of working alongside foreign elements to harm India. She criticised the CJP for staging demonstrations at Jantar Mantar and targeted both the Congress and AAP regarding their opposition to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Gupta alleged that the CJP routinely avoids raising issues in opposition-ruled states and challenged the outfit to demonstrate in Punjab, where Singh was shot dead inside a busy market in Mansa district on October 13. Singh was widely known for speaking out against drug abuse and the illegal sale of addictive substances at chemist shops.
Why do they act like the B-Team of AAP and work only on agendas suited to the party? Gupta asked during her address.
She also criticized the CJP for insisting on holding protests at Jantar Mantar, which was recently removed from the official list of designated protest sites. Gupta accused the outfit of deliberately inconveniencing Delhi residents and trying to destabilize the city. Several CJP leaders had breached barricades and entered the Jantar Mantar area on Tuesday despite the altered status of the site, raising slogans to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the electoral roll revision.
Gupta further criticized the Congress and AAP for opposing the ongoing voter list revision exercise, claiming they had raised no such concerns in states where they had emerged victorious. She suggested that the Congress and associated organizations felt rejected by voters following recent electoral losses, maintaining that the public remained satisfied with the central government's development initiatives and India's overall progress.
This is the reason why they are trying to harm the country in collusion with foreign elements who envy India, Gupta alleged, adding that they are hurt after losing power and are hence troubling the whole country for their political ambitions.
Gupta additionally claimed that recent protests had caused Delhi financial losses amounting to thousands of crores of rupees while severely inconveniencing local traders and other residents.
Defending the electoral roll revision exercise, she emphasized that the procedure was not unprecedented. This is not the first time the SIR happened in the country: it was conducted in 2002 by the Election Commission, she said.