After dropping her second name, ‘Marlena’ — following her appointment as the Aam Aadmi Party’s in-charge for the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in June — AAP leader Atishi on Sunday attended a Kshatriya community event that referred to her as “Atishi Singh”.
Posing with members of the community while holding a ceremonial sword, Ms. Atishi was the special guest at the Kshatriya Vichaar Manch Mandawali’s 26th annual shastra puja to mark Vijayadashmi.
Posters as well as the backdrop for the event referred to Ms. Atishi as Atishi Singh. The chief guest at the event was Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who has attended the event in the past as well.
Ms. Atishi had decided to drop Marlena, the name given to her by her parents in reference to Marx and Lenin, after rumours were being spread that she was a Christian or foreigner, both she and the AAP had said.
Her Twitter handle was changed from @AtishiMarlena to @AtishiAAP, while Marlena was dropped from all party publicity materials, press releases and website.
When The Hindu, in August, reported Ms. Atishi’s decision to drop Marlena, party leaders, including AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai, had said that the decision was taken only to counter alleged rumour-mongering by other political parties in East Delhi constituency.
Though not announced officially, Ms. Atishi is likely to be the AAP candidate for the East Delhi constituency.
Facing questions from the BJP and the Congress, AAP leaders had said the decision was not related to caste or community, as Ms. Atishi’s family name was Singh, which she had never used.
The spokesperson of the Kshatriya group that organised Sunday’s event and the chairperson of the Ghazipur Flower Mandi committee, Vijay Sisodia, said Ms. Atishi had not asked for Singh to be added to her name for the publicity materials.
“From what we had heard about her family, we knew that she was from a Rajput background so we wrote Atishi Singh,” he said.
Ms. Atishi did not respond to requests for comment.
Kejriwal exposed: BJP
Reacting to photos of the event, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said: “Today, Arvind Kejriwal stands exposed... a party that expresses apprehensions about changes in names based on history... has chosen a political shortcut by portraying its East Delhi constituency in-charge first as Atishi Marlena and now as Atishi Singh after her surname seemed to pose a challenge among a Hindu-majority electorate... this is the Aam Aadmi Party, which claimed to have entered politics to transform it... it is playing politics on the basis of caste and religion just like the Congress does.”