Voters of Gujarat have given a record number of seats to the BJP in the recently held Gujarat Assembly elections. While BJP soared to new heights, Congress was reduced to just 17 seats while Aam Aadmi Party could not even touch double digits. Upset over his defeat, the Aam Aadmi Party’s chief spokesperson attacked Hindu religious institutions and blamed them for the party’s humiliating loss.
AAP chief spokesperson Yogesh Jadwani tweeted, “The reason why the main faces of the AAP lost the election in Surat are BAPS, Haridham Sokhada, Vadtal Gaddi along with Swaminarayan and other religious institutions.”
In the same tweet, he further wrote, “On the day before the polling, all the organizations spread lies and misled that Arvind Kejriwal was a Muslim and they would not vote for AAP.”
In his tweet, Yogesh Jadwani accused Hindu institutions, especially Swaminarayan institutions, for AAP’s loss but did not put forward any evidence to back the allegation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party criticised AAP for trying to blame religious institutions for their own failures. Zubin Ashara, media co-in-charge of the Gujarat state unit of the BJP, replied, “As soon as the elections are over, the Aam Aadmi Party started showing its anti-Hindu face. BAPS, Haridham, Swaminarayan, all these institutions are revered by us. Insulting them and defaming them like this is condemnable.”
Italia had called the Swaminarayan sect ‘Bullshit’
However, this is not the first time that an AAP leader has insulted Hinduism or the Swaminarayan sect. Not long ago, a video of AAP’s Gujarat state president Gopal Italia calling the Swaminarayan sect ‘Bullshit’ went viral.
Gopal Italia, AAP state president, and close confidant of Kejriwal, ridicules followers of Swaminarayan Sampraday and calls their beliefs “BULLSHIT”.
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 29, 2022
Millions of Hindus across the world revere and follow teachings of Bhagwan Swaminarayan.
Gujarat will never accept such bigots… pic.twitter.com/cz2T1QeBal
In the viral video, AAP state president Gopal Italia was seen repeatedly insulting the Swaminarayan sect and its followers. He said, “These people say not to eat garlic onions. If someone sits next to us and asks us not to eat garlic onions, we know which temple or community they belong to. All this is big bullshit.” He further said, “Those who believe in this sect are wrong and I condemn them.”
Even though the people of Gujarat have given them a crushing defeat by rejecting them, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders do not seem to be learning any lessons.
