New Delhi, September 26
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hosted a sanitation worker and his family from Gujarat over lunch at his residence here on Monday, officials said.
Opposition BJP and Congress, meanwhile, dubbed the lunch hosted for the sanitation worker from Gujarat Kejriwal, a “political stunt” and accused him of “hypocrisy” instead of taking care of Dalits living in the city.
Harsh Solanki, a sanitation worker from Gujarat, along with his family, also visited a Delhi government school and a hospital.
Solanki presented a portrait of B R Ambedkar to Kejriwal, the officials said.
During the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) town hall with sanitation workers, predominantly from the Dalit community, in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Sunday, Solanki had invited Kejriwal to have dinner at his house.
In a statement, Kejriwal had said he would host Solanki and his family at his residence over lunch.
“It was a very happy moment for us. They sat with my family and we had lunch. I am thankful to them for coming this far to meet me,” Kejriwal told reporters.
Solanki said it was a proud moment for him to have been hosted by a political leader.
“In the last 75 years, he (Kejriwal) is the first leader to have called a Dalit for lunch. It is a big thing for me. I also saw schools and hospitals and it felt very good. I had never thought that I would be standing with the chief minister sir,” he said.
Accusing Kejriwal of “hypocrisy” BJP MLA and leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri charged Kejriwal is not a well-wisher of Dalits and sanitation workers.
