Chhattisgarh: BJP seeks police action against AB Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla

The Chhattisgarh BJP has filed a police complaint seeking FIR against the Bharat Rattan and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla besides several other Congress leaders and supporters.

When the Congress leaders including Karuna Shukla and Bhupesh Baghel along with other Congress leaders and supporters had reached the BJP office to seek the urn with ashes, there was intense sloganeering at the main gate of the BJP office by the activists of both parties and police had to intervene to thwart any untoward incident.

Agitated over alleged insult to the ashes of former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday, October 19, Shukla accompanied by several other Congress leaders and supporters had stormed into the premises of BJP’s divisional office ‘Ekatma Parisar’ in Raipur.

They alleged that the urn containing ashes of the former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee were gathering dust in the party’s office and not immersed as per rituals.

On Twitter, Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhupesh Baghel, said that BJP should handed over the urn containing ashes of mortal remains of the late Prime Minister and Bharat Ratan to the Congress party, so that the ashes could be immersed as per the rituals.

"We had written to the collector, the superintendent of police and election commission informing them about the protest. Despite this, they used their brute force on me," said Shukla, who joined the Congress in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, told NDTV, alleging that the Chhattisgarh BJP has forgotten to immerse the deceased leader's ashes.

"In the media room in the BJP office, there is a sack with an urn inside it. People there told us that these are Atalji's ashes. The ashes were supposed to be taken to a particular block but the BJP didn't take them,” party spokesperson Vikas Tiwari was quoted as saying.

The complaint has been filed at Moudhapara police station on Wednesday by the state BJP spokesperson Sanjay Shrivastava, Chhttisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation chairman Chhagan Mundra and party’s Legal Cell in-charge Naresh Gupta. They have demanded an First Information Report (FIR) against Karuna Shukla and Bhupesh Baghel besides other Congress leaders.

Pertinently, a week after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's demise, Shukla had accused the Modi government and the Chhattisgarh BJP of politicising his death with an eye on the upcoming elections in state and Lok Sabha.