Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for holding a mega cadre meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) amid the heightened tension with Pakistan.

Preparing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP on Thursday had organised a mega meeting — ‘Mera Booth Sabse Mazboot’ — in which Modi had a direct dialogue with party workers and volunteers via video conferencing.

Speaking on the last day of Delhi assembly’s budget session, Kejriwal criticised the PM and the BJP for not postponing the meeting despite the tense situation at India’s international
border.

“The entire country was pained with the killing of 40 CRPF personnel in the Pulwama terror attack. Our air force took revenge and made us proud by dropping bombs inside Pakistan on February 26. But the pain returned when yesterday Pakistan captured one of our pilots. At a time when the entire country is with the government and the armed forces, the prime minister is busy strengthening polling booths for his party, instead of strengthening the country,” he said

The opposition BJP MLAs objected to Kejriwal’s and interrupted his speech after which speaker Ram Niwas Goel asked legislators OP Sharma and Manjinder Singh Sirsa to be marshalled out of the House. Later, leader of opposition Vijender Gupta and his party colleague Jagdish Pradhan also walked out of the House.

Calling the BJP “tukde tukde party”, Kejriwal said the country was witnessing two types of politics. “One is at the Centre that is dividing the people of India along caste and religion. The other is our (AAP) government that is fulfilling the dreams of our soldiers by focusing on health, education, jobs, power and water. They call others tukde tukde gang. But they themselves are tukde tukde party,” he said.

Kejriwal, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party’s convener, criticised Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa for his comment that India’s air strike on a terror camp in Pakistan on Tuesday had created a wave in favour of PM Modi and would help the party win more then 22 of 28 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha elections.

“I want to ask them (BJP) how many soldiers will have to die for them to get 300 seats? Shame on such a party and government,” the AAP chief said.

Kejriwal hoped a solution to the escalated tension between India and Pakistan is found soon. The Speaker said it would be a welcome step if Pakistan released the IAF pilot.

First Published: Mar 01, 2019 08:33 IST