AAP, BJP clash over setting up of Chhath ghat in south Delhi

New Delhi: The ruling AAP and the opposition BJP clashed on Saturday over setting up a Chhath ghat in south Delhi for the popular Purvanchali festival, with Chief Minister Atishi joining the row and slamming the saffron party.

In a post in X, Atishi alleged that at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), a central government agency, is not allowing the Chhath ghat to be set up, saying "such petty politics" would not be allowed.

The issue pertains to the setting up of a Chhath ghat at a DDA park in Satpula Ground in Chirag Delhi.

Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who is also the local Greater Kailash MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), went to the spot and alleged that the BJP-controlled DDA is stopping Purvanchali people from setting up the ghat.

Bharadwaj staged a sit-in protest at the spot, alleging that the BJP "coerced" the DDA to halt the construction of the Chhath ghat and got the Delhi Police to lock up Chirag Delhi's eight-year-old Chhath Puja site.

The minister also shared a video on X, in which a man is heard claiming that people were not allowed to set up the ghat despite permission from the deputy commissioner.

A DDA officer said the site is at Satpula lake, where a 6,000-sq.mtr area has already been allotted for Chhath Puja.

The BJP hit back at Bharadwaj, accusing him and AAP workers of preventing the setting up of the Chhath ghat, and claiming that the "anti-Hindu face" of the party led by Arvind Kejriwal has been exposed.

BJP leader Shikha Rai alleged that residents of Greater Kailash arrived at the Satpula DDA Park to clean the Chhath Puja ghat site but were prevented by Bharadwaj's men.

"The AAP workers issued threats and pressured the residents and BJP workers to leave," she claimed.

The Purvanchalis -- Bhojpuri-speaking people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand -- settled in Delhi are an influential vote bank, accounting for 30 to 40 per cent of the around 1.5 crore votes in the national capital.

The AAP and the BJP have been engaged in an intense war of words and blame game ahead of next year's Delhi Assembly polls over a host of issues, including air pollution and preparations for Chhath.

The Chhath festival is celebrated six days after Diwali. During the festival, women pay obeisance to the Sun god by fasting and offering "arghya" of cow milk and Gangajal to the deity, stepping knee deep into a water body.

Rai said Chhath Puja has been celebrated at the park with great enthusiasm for the last 16 years. However, in recent years, AAP workers occupied the 6,000-sq.mtr area a few days before the festival and imposed arbitrary arrangement conditions, she alleged.

The BJP leader also alleged that when she and other members of the Chhath committee arrived at the spot to dig up the ghat, Bharadwaj's brother, along with his associates, tried to stop them.