AAP MLA Kuldeep Kumar in Delhi Assembly on February 24.
| Photo Credit: ANI

A day after its MLAs were suspended from the Assembly House for three days, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the ruling party’s “hatred for Babasaheb Ambedkar”.

The Opposition legislators, including Leader of the Opposition Atishi, were suspended for disrupting Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena’s inaugural address to the newly constituted House. The lawmakers were holding a protest in the House for the second consecutive day over the alleged removal of the portraits of B.R. Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh from Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s office. The BJP has termed AAP’s allegations “baseless”.

Addressing a press conference on the issue, AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha said, “Our only crime was questioning why the portraits of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh were removed to make space for the portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Mr. Jha said he and the other 21 AAP MLAs had been suspended for chanting “Jai Bhim” in the Assembly House.

“However, leaders of the BJP were shouting ‘Modi-Modi’ in the House, for which the Speaker (Vijender Gupta) praised them and let them remain seated. We will continue to chant ‘Jai Bhim’ slogans, let the BJP do what it can to stop us,” said AAP’s Kondli MLA Kuldeep Kumar.

The BJP has refuted allegations levelled by Delhi’s principal Opposition party and shared purported photos of Ms. Gupta’s office, where portraits of the two national icons were displayed on the walls, along with those of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and President Droupadi Murmu.

On Tuesday, Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood said, “The protest is an attempt by AAP leaders to divert attention from the corruption during their rule.”