Bidhuri triggers row with comment on Delhi CM Atishi

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Kalkaji constituency, Ramesh Bidhuri, stoked controversy yet again with problematic remarks against Delhi chief minister Atishi, this time mocking her campaigning by saying that she has been “roaming in the city like a deer”.

Atishi is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate from the same constituency for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls.

Bidhuri, during a public address at Govindpuri on Wednesday, said in Hindi: “People have been suffering in miserable conditions for four years, and now that elections are months away, Atishi is roaming in Delhi streets as a doe runs in the jungle (jaise jungle me hirni bhagti firti hai)... Whenever she comes across any sister on the streets, she runs and hugs them like a sister lost in Kumbh.”

Reacting to the statement, the AAP in a statement said, “Imagine if Ramesh Bidhuri can use such derogatory language for a chief minister, what kind of language will he use for ordinary women if he becomes Delhi’s CM?”

“Members of the Gaali Galoch Party have a long history of hurling insults at women — be it in Parliament, abusing a Congress leader, targeting CM Atishi’s parents, and now, once again, resorting to such despicable language,” the AAP said.

Earlier this month, Bidhuri had said that if he were to be elected as a Delhi MLA, he would “make city roads like Priyanka Gandhi’s cheeks”. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had later dismissed Bidhuri’s remarks as “ridiculous”.

Prior to this, Bidhuri had commented on Atishi’s changing second name. “Marlena has changed her father. Earlier she was Marlena, now she has become Singh. This is their character,” Bidhuri said at a rally in Rohini on January 5.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had posted the clip of the controversial remark on X: “BJP leaders have crossed all limits of shamelessness. The people of Delhi will not tolerate the insult of a woman chief minister. All the women of Delhi will take revenge for this.”