Kanda extends helping hand to BJP, stirs political debate
CHANDIGARH: Haryana Lokhit Party leader Gopal Kanda, who was elected from Sirsa in the recent assembly polls, pledged “unconditional support” to the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday, causing a cascade of political reactions from across party lines.
Kanda is an accused in a case of abetment to suicide of a woman employee of his now-defunct airlines, MDLR.
Kanda told reporters on Friday that he, together with five independent candidates, had “decided” to extend “unconditional support to the BJP” in forming the government in Haryana. In Delhi, six MLAs met the party’s working president J P Nadda. “We felt that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the country is progressing well and even the state government has delivered and provided a clean and transparent regime,” he told reporters.
Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti took to Twitter to warn the party against working with Kanda. Opposition Congress also slammed the BJP, while in New Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party leaders Sanjay Singh and Atishi held a press conference accusing the BJP of engaging in politics that “goes against women security”. “This decision goes against women’s security. I have a question for BJP’s Delhi unit: Will they question the central leadership and their counterparts in Haryana if they join hands with Gopal Kanda?” Atishi said.
In a tweet, Bharti cautioned her party that such a move could hurt the clean image enjoyed by PM Modi and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of doublespeak. “I think you should look at the statements made by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah at the time when Gopal Kanda was a minister in the state government in Haryana, when we forced him to resign after registration of a case,” he told reporters in Delhi.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too attacked the BJP. “...every self respecting Indian woman should boycott the BJP and its leaders if they ever dare to speak of respecting women again,” she tweeted.
Kanda was a minister in the Congress-led government of Bhupinder Hooda. He had tendered his resignation at the time. Then in the Opposition, the BJP had held protests against Kanda, demanding his arrest.