Delhi Assembly Elections: BJP Banking On Nationalist Card

The BJP appears to have queered the pitch on the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi to be held on February 8. The question is, is it overplaying the nationalist card? Or will it turn out to be to the BJP's advantage?

Right from Union Home Minister Amit Shah to several other BJP leaders, including Union Cabinet ministers and MPs have made the Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) into a focal point for the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi. capital. JNU leader Sharjeel Imam, who was arrested on charges of sedition in Bihar on Tuesday, has also given BJP another handle to beat AAP and Congress with.

The BJP kept Shaheen in focus all along. Union Minister Anurag Thakur was heard chanting slogans of shoot the traitors in an election rally in the national capital on Monday, prompting the Election Commission to send him a notice on the speech.

Union minister Giriraj Singh accused Arvind Kejriwal of backing Shaheen Bagh protesters.

BJP MP Parvesh Verma remarked that these protests were dangerous and that tomorrow the protesters could enter homes and rape women. A similar scene played out in Kashmir, he said.

BJP leaders have hit out at the opposition for supporting the Tukde Tukde gang which was out to break India up. The party's MLA candidate from Model Town, Kapil Mishra compared it to an India vs Pakistan contest.

BJP leaders have repeatedly dared Kejriwal to spell out his stand on the Shaheen Bagh protests after Deputy chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia reportedly issued a statement that his party stood by the protesters. however, AAP leaders, including Kejriwal have stayed aloof from the controversy, for the most part.

Arvind Kejriwal observed that it was up to the BJP government to arrest Sharjeel Imam. As regards Shaheen Bagh, the Delhi chief Minister said that it was up to the Union Home Minister to get the protest site cleared.