Gautam Gambhir is BJP MP from East Delhi.
New Delhi:
BJP’s East Delhi MP, former cricketer Gautam Gambhir took strike against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the Ghazipur landfill that falls in his constituency, accusing the AAP boss of speaking about it only for political reasons ahead of Delhi’s municipal elections.
“I’ve been to the Ghazipur mountain eight times since 2019, and the Chief Minister did not come even after I asked him again and again,” he said in a tweet in Hindi, calling Mr Kejriwal “barsati mendhak” or “a frog that emerges only during rains”, and “liar in chief”.
मैं 2019 से 8 बार ग़ाज़ीपुर पहाड़ पर गया और बार बार बुलाने पर भी मुख्यमंत्री नहीं आये! चुनावी मेंढक आसमां देख कर निकलते हैं, तकलीफ़ देख कर नहीं #LiarInChiefKejriwalpic.twitter.com/4DW4HvfvJi
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) October 27, 2022
“He cannot see people’s pain,” Mr Gambhir said, attaching a letter written to Mr Kejriwal in 2020, soon after he was elected Chief Minister a third time.
“I would like to draw your attention to the biggest landfill site in Asia… It is a matter of great concern for all of us being public servants. The people living nearby… are in a very plightfull (sic) situation,” reads the letter.
The AAP has not yet reacted to his tweet, though it has over the past few months been accusing the BJP of “turning the entire city into a garbage dump”.
“15 years is a long time. BJP has spent over Rs 1,200 crore to clear these landfills. But nothing is visible to the eye”: Durgesh Pathak (@ipathak25), AAP MCD incharge, on BJP protests against AAP over garbage dumps pic.twitter.com/Sdq2EPuF29
— NDTV (@ndtv) October 27, 2022
The letter Mr Gambhir shared says further, “As the CM of Delhi, you should visit the site for [those people’s] sake,” and invites him to see work done by the central government and BJP-led civic body.
It’s not clear how he responded to this invite, but Mr Kejriwal visited the site today amid protests by BJP workers. He promised that if AAP is voted to run the MCD, “we will clean Delhi and overhaul its sanitation, just as we have overhauled the education and health systems”.
The BJP accuses the AAP of not giving due funds to the civic bodies. It has promised to flatten the Ghazipur landfill site and two others ahead of the civic body elections that may be held by the end of this year or early next year.
