Delhi polls: Vote for BJP for women's respect, give a befitting reply to AAP, says Smriti Irani

Union minister Smriti Irani raked up the 2016 suicide case of AAP volunteer Soni Mishra and the Nirbhaya case on Wednesday to launch an attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and appealed to people to vote for the BJP in the upcoming Assembly polls in the national capital for "women's respect".

Addressing a rally at Shastri Nagar in the Sadar Bazar constituency, Irani alleged that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) did not respect women.

She accused Kejriwal, who is the AAP national convener, of not helping Mishra, a volunteer of his party, when she complained about her alleged physical harassment in 2016.

Mishra had alleged harassment at the hands of an AAP legislator and later committed suicide.

Referring to the juvenile convict in the Nirbhaya gangrape-and-murder case being freed in December 2015, the Union women and child development minister said the AAP government gave a sewing machine and Rs 10,000 to one of the convicts in the gruesome case.

"I want to ask you whether you can expect the Aam Aadmi Party to respect the women of your families and provide security to them.

"I have come to request you that if you think women deserve the right of respect, go to the polling booths on February 8 and give a befitting reply to the Aam Aadmi Party...and for the respect of women, make the BJP win," Irani said.

Accusing the AAP of supporting the Shaheen Bagh protesters and the "tukde tukde" gang, she said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had recently said that he stood with the Shaheen Bagh protesters.

"Kejriwalji, is this your politics? The residents of Sarita Vihar and other nearby areas of Shaheen Bagh have been facing a lot of problems due to the anti-CAA protests.

"School students, office-goers get stuck in traffic jams for over two hours, but he does not care about them," she said.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also slammed the AAP dispensation, saying it had failed to honour its promises made in the run-up to the 2015 Assembly election.

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank" hit out at the Kejriwal-led party, saying it had failed to serve the people of the national capital.

The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to polls on February 8 and the results will be announced on February 11.