Tumultuous Beginning Of 8th Delhi Assembly Has Political Ramifications

8th Delhi Assembly session had tumultuous session on Tuesday, February 25.. The issue of replacement of Dr B R Ambedkar’s portrait with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s in Delhi Chief Minister’s office not only led to ruckus but also expulsion of 12 AAP MLAs. The issue is politically very sensitive and may adversely impact the newly adopted strategy of the BJP to win over Dalits not only in Delhi but also across the country.

Encouraged by winning 4 of the 12 Vidhan Sabha seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, BJP Central leadership had recently decided to make Sant Ravidas Jayanti on February 12, 2025 a holiday. Lieutenant Governor had declared it to be holiday against the earlier practice of observing it as ‘restricted holiday’. The newly crowned Chief Minister of Delhi Rekha Gupta perhaps failed to perceive the signal, and in her enthusiasm to pay respect and as a mark of thanks giving replaced Dr B R Ambedkar’s portrait with PM Narendra Modi.

Delhi Assembly session has been scheduled for three days – February 24, 25 and 27. On the second day BJP government led by CM Rekha Gupta was to table 14 CAG reports highlighting alleged misconduct by the previous AAP government. However, in the very beginning of the second day, amid uproar during LG V K Saxena’s address, AAP MLAs raised the issue of replacing of Dr B R Ambedkar’s portrait in the Chief Minister’s office with PM Narendra Modi.

After that Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijendra Gupta, in a tit-for-tat treatment, got the 12 AAP MLAs thrown out of the House. When Vijendra Gupta was in opposition, he was once marshalled out of the Delhi Assembly when AAP was in power. It is therefore, it is a significant move, which smacks of revenge rather than political wisdom. The MLAs expelled for the day included former chief minister and AAP leader Atishi and a minister Gopal Rai.

Atishi has alleged that the BJP had disrespected Dr B R Ambedkar by removing his portrait from the chief minister’s office. During a press conference after the expulsions, Atishi said, “BJP has shown its true colours by removing Babasaheb Ambedkar’s portrait.”

It should be noted that out of the 12 reserve seats for SCs in Delhi, AAP has been winning all the seats in the last elections, save in recently concluded elections when it lost 4 of them to BJP. AAP has noted this early shift in Dalit votes towards BJP, and hence AAP leaders are not in a position to lose any opportunity to regain the political loss among the Dalit. Dalit politics is also significant in Punjab where AAP is ruling. Declaring Sant Ravidas Jayanti a Holiday was significant mover of the BJP to attract Dalit voters, also in Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh where Sant Ravidas has large followings.

Removing Dr B R Ambedkar’s portrait from BJP’s newly crowned chief minister’s office came handy for the AAP leaders and they had no option but to raise the issue. After being suspended from the Delhi Assembly, an AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha said, “The portrait of Dr B R Ambedkar was replaced with PM Modi in the CM office yesterday. When we asked the speaker if PM Modi is bigger than Dr B R Ambedkar, he suspended us from the assembly for raising the issue. They (BJP) hate Dr B R Ambedkar, but the country will not accept this … .”

The issue was ever raised on the first day of the first session on February 24, due to which the session began with stormy note. The leader of opposition, Atishi, had alleged that pictures of Dr B R Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh had been removed from the Chief Minister’s Office.

Since her remark was without the permission of the Chair, it resulted in uproar in the House. The AAP MLAs then resorted to sloganeering in the House with BJP members objecting to the charges. Then the speaker had said, “The Opposition is behaving irresponsibly. You will get time. An attempt is being made to hurt the dignity of the House. I urge Opposition members to take their seats and allow the House to function. AAP members have come with an intention to disturb the House. You should not have made it a political platform. The opposition does not want the House to run smoothly.”

“I want to warn the Opposition that they should not try to spread anarchy. They should let the proceedings continue smoothly,” he had said. However, AAP MLAs continued sloganeering, which resulted in adjournment of the House for 15 minutes.

AAP leader Atishi then said in a post on X, “BJP has shown its true anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh face. Photos of Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh have been removed from the Chief Minister’s Office of Delhi Legislative Assembly.” She also had attached two photos – one of herself as CM which had images of Dr Ambedkar on the wall behind her, and the other of CM Rekha Gupta which had photos of President Draupadi Murmu, Mahatma Gandhi, and PM Narendra Modi.

In another political development, CM Rekha Gupta tabled only one of the 14 CAG reports. Speaker Vijender Gupta said that these CAG documents are extensive and need time to be analysed and discussed. The tabled CAG report on the scraped Liquor Policy says that it caused Rs 2,002 crore loss to the exchequer. BJP hopes to pin down the opposition AAP on the issue of the loss as per the report.

Nevertheless, only time will tell how much political benefit BJP can derive out of the CAG reports, and how much benefit AAP may be able to derive from the issue of removal of portraits of Dr Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh from BJP Chief Minister’s office. (IPA Service)