Following the latest political slugfest in the run-up to the Assembly elections in Gujarat, the BJP on Thursday hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party over its state chief Gopal Italia's recent remarks which have triggered reactions from the saffron party.
Mr Italia was detained by the Delhi Police after he was summoned by the National Commission of Women (NCW) on Thursday.
A video of Italia had gone viral in which he is purportedly heard asking the women not to visit the temples and 'kathas' (sermons by Hindu priests) as they are "hubs of exploitation". This comes days after he allegedly made a casteist remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in yet another viral video.
BJP national general secretary CT Ravi said that AAP has an old habit of doing drama, however, the party would not succeed in Gujarat.
"It is an old habit of the AAP to do drama. The people of Gujarat are intelligent, they know that AAP is doing drama. They also know why is Gopal Italia doing all this. The Gujaratis have always been with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and they will be in the future also. No matter how much they do drama, they will not be benefitted in Gujarat. They did get its benefit in Delhi. AAP had said during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as well that the BJP is nervous," Mr Ravi said.
BJP leader Amit Malviya raised questions over the political drama that unfolded in the national capital after the AAP workers protested outside NCW chief Rekha Sharma's office.
Malviya said that the remarks by Mr Italia have sparked anger in every section of Gujarat society.
"The question is that if NCW has summoned Italia over his remarks, why did he reach there with his supporters and why was chaos created? As far as his remarks are concerned, every section of Gujarat's society has respect for its women. The kind of derogatory remarks that Italia has made, there is anger in every section of society," Malviya said.
Earlier on Thursday, the AAP Gujarat unit head Gopal Italia was detained by the Delhi Police from the National Commission of Women (NCW) office in the national capital.
The NCW chief summoned Mr Italia over a controversial video, in which he was purportedly seen using derogatory language for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sambit Patra slammed Mr Italia over his remark.
"Calling the Prime Minister a lowly person is against the democratic rules of the country; it is an insult to the country. Be it any caste, or any religion, no person can be lowly," Mr Patra had said at a press conference.
"An OBC Prime Minister who comes from a backward class, who comes from a poor and ordinary family, repeatedly calling him lowly, what is this abuse? Does the Aam Aadmi Party want to call the backwards-class people low? Anyone who rises from an ordinary poor family and becomes the Prime Minister is not lowly in the democratic process. No, it is against democratic values," he had added.
"The Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal are the people who said that they have come to change the character of India. If the democratically elected influential and hardworking Prime Minister is called lowly, and he is calling the PM lowly in that video, not once, but somewhere it shows the mentality of the Aam Aadmi Party," he had stated.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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