The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged on Monday that the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh were “scripted and strategised” by the BJP and that the over three-month-long road blockade led by a large number of Muslim women was designed to benefit the BJP in the assembly polls held earlier this year.

It also accused the BJP of engineering the communal violence later that month in northeast Delhi that left 53 people dead and around 400 injured.
Addressing a digital news conference, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said “pro-democracy” citizens must be feeling “cheated and manipulated” as the “BJP pulled the strings” of the protest that they had joined.

“The Shaheen Bagh protest was the BJPs main election issue… the BJP stands exposed now as the organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protests have joined BJP,” said AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj, accusing the BJP of polarizing Delhi to win the election.

The BJP denied AAP’s allegations and said the party led by Arvind Kejriwal was making baseless claims to garner support from the minority communities ahead of the municipal elections in the capital. due to take place sometime in April 2022. The last municipal elections in Delhi took place on April 23, 2017 and the BJP managed to win a majority in all three civic bodies.

“The AAP has misled people in Delhi, especially the Muslim community, for its political gains. Their allegations have no meaning as the Muslim community supports the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now, with the municipal elections scheduled in 2022, the AAP is nervous about losing its support base in the community,” said Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta.

AAP’s attack came a day after the BJP announced that several Muslim residents of Shaheen Bagh, which was the epicentre of anti-CAA protests for months, have joined the party.