Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and minister Kailash Gahlot, on Thursday protested against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal near his house on Firoz Shah Road alleging that “extravagant items” and “luxurious fixtures” such as gold-plated toilets were used at his former residence at 6, Flag Staff Road.
Referring to the bungalow at Civil Lines as “Sheesh Mahal”, BJP leaders questioned the origins of furnishings added in a 2022 renovation of the bungalow and demanded that a probe be carried out.
The AAP, meanwhile, called the protest “theatrics and drama” which it alleged “stem from the BJP’s fear of losing elections”.
On Thursday around 11am, hundreds of BJP workers, led by party’s Delhi chief Virendra Sachdeva, and MP and leader of opposition Vijendra Gupta, marched towards Kejriwal’s current residence but were stopped by police near Ashoka Road. BJP workers carried cutout caricatures of Kejriwal with a gold-plated toilet and placards demanding “accountability for Sheesh Mahal.”
Gahlot, who joined the BJP just four days ago, stressed that the issue of the bungalow was among those he had highlighted in his resignation letter to the AAP chief.
“It is an issue which anyone who is aligned with the ideology of the AAP will find disturbing. The kind of money that has been spent on it shows to the common man that the values and principles of the AAP have been compromised,” Gahlot added.
At the Firoz Shah Road residence that has been allotted to AAP MP Ashok Mittal, where Kejriwal has been staying since October, police had set up two rows of barricades. The BJP said that party workers and Sachdeva were detained by police and taken to the Parliament Street police station, where they were later released later.
The Flag Staff Road bungalow was at the centre of a controversy in 2023 over expenses on its renovation. The BJP alleged that the Delhi government spent ₹45 crore renovating the house. Kejriwal stepped down as Delhi chief minister and vacated the 6, Flagstaff Road bungalow on October 4.
“Sheesh Mahal bungalow is the result of embezzlement of crores of rupees from the public’s hard-earned money and is a symbol of corruption. We have never heard of something as extravagant as a golden toilet seat before… The golden toilet seat, golden washbasin, silver dinner set, carpets worth ₹50 lakh, curtains worth ₹8 lakh, expensive stones, and even Bose speakers in all rooms and bathrooms were all installed by Kejriwal,” Sachdeva alleged.
Hitting back, the AAP said in a statement: “The BJP’s theatrics and drama stem from their fear of losing elections in Delhi. Their true agenda is to dismantle the free electricity scheme for Delhi citizens and hand over power plants to Adani, who will then charge consumers four times the rate just as in BJP-ruled states.”
It added: “The BJP has adopted several tactics to malign the image of the staunchly honest Arvind Kejriwal. Even fabricated cases against him but to date, not a single rupee of wrongdoing has been uncovered by any agency against AAP or any of its leaders. While the AAP and its leaders have faced countless allegations none of which could withstand court’s scrutiny, the BJP must answer why it continues to shield Adani.”
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