The Bharatiya Janata Party’s East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir has been using a “duplicate” to campaign for him in order to avoid the heat, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged on Friday. The Aam Aadmi Party leader shared pictures of the alleged impersonator on Twitter, claiming that the man was actually a Congress leader.
“This is the mahamilavat between Congress and BJP,” Sisodia tweeted. “Gautam Gambhir is sitting inside an AC car as he has issues standing in sunlight. Instead of him, his lookalike is standing on top of the car wearing a cap. Party workers are garlanding the ‘duplicate’ Gambhir. And this duplicate is, in fact, a Congress worker.”
Gambhir, however, rubbished the allegations, saying that AAP has been rumour-mongering in the face of “certain defeat”. “Face with a certain defeat, AAP finds a fixation everyday, this time they found my clone!!” he tweeted.
Delhi’s Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Praveen Sankar Kapoor said the lookalike was Gaurav Arora, a close friend of Gambhir. “He (Arora) and Gautam ji have been friends since their school days, for around 25 years… his father Manohar Arora is an active party worker in Karol Bagh,” Kapoor told The Indian Express.
BJP leader in charge of Lok Sabha for East Delhi Rajiv Babbar claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party had lost its connection with the people of Delhi. “In this series of spreading misinformation they today said that a party worker campaigned in place of Gautam Gambhir which is absolutely false,” he told PTI.
Babbar claimed that Gambhir felt dizzy due to the heat for 10 to 15 minutes while campaigning and therefore sat in the front seat of the car. “Waving of hands by workers atop campaign vehicles is normal practice,” he said. “Had Gautam Gambhir not been inside the vehicle we could have considered it wrong but in the present case when he was visible for all to see, the BJP feels it’s just one more controversy by opponents.”
This came a day after Gambhir was accused of distributing pamphlets with derogatory remarks about his AAP rival Atishi Marlena.
The three contenders in the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency are Marlena, Gambhir, and Congress’ Arvind Singh Lovely. Delhi votes on Sunday.
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