The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was left red-faced on Wednesday after it inducted 23-year-old Kapil Gujjar who was arrested earlier this year for opening fire at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh during the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Gujjar joined the BJP but soon after his induction his membership was cancelled by the party.
District BJP functionaries said they were not aware of Gujjar’s identity and he had come with a group of people desirous of joining the party. Speaking to TOI later, Gujjar said, “I don’t know why I was expelled, but that doesn’t matter because my Hindutva ideology aligns with that of BJP. I will keep on working for the party from outside. I want to work for Hindus.”
Functionaries of the BJP said Gujjar joined the party together with his supporters at the city unit’s office in the Nehru Nagar area in a ceremony where sweets were distributed and his admission to the party was cheered.
“Today, Kapil Gujjar joined with hundreds of his supporters and he has influence in his area. The youth have joined the party as they like our party’s policies; the way our Prime Minister works; the way our chief minister Yogi Adityanath ji works and also the way our state president Swatantra Dev Singh ji is working to strengthen the party,” Sanjeev Sharma, president of the BJP’s city unit, told reporters.
In videos of the February 1 incident, which went viral on social media, Mr. Gujjar could be heard saying, “In our country, only Hindus will prevail, none else.” He fired two-three shots in the air before being nabbed by the police. He is out on bail.
When his shooting videos had first emerged, the BJP had said Mr. Gujjar’s family had links with the Aam Aadmi Party.
AAP on Wednesday said Mr. Gujjar’s induction into the BJP clearly exposed that “the party’s plan was to create a riot in Delhi”.
