BJP’s Gorakhpur MP Ravi Kishan tried a mix of calm and taunting as he sought to pacify a corporator from his party who called him and complained rather curtly about waterlogging after heavy rain in the city.
Where are you when the city is drowning? Politician and actor Kishan then needled him by asking if he had joined the Opposition, the Samajwadi Party, and got another clapback from Tripathi over speakerphone: “What do you mean by that? Have you joined the BSP, then? Tell me! Tripathi landed at the place, but then showed Kishan not taking his calls. The controversy also drew a reaction from the Samajwadi Party.
” Arey Brahmin devta, Brahmin devta, suniye …”, ‘Listen to me, dear Brahmin god’, Ravi Kishan said, using a caste-coded honorific for Vishwajit Tripathi, who snapped back, “It’s not about my being Brahmin! In one of the videos, Kishan told Tripathi he was watching the situation and was at the Nauka Vihar government resort. BJP’s regional general secretary Satendra Sinha said any disciplinary action in the matter would be decided by the party’s committee. In his personal view, however, he said the issue should have been raised on the party forum rather than on social media. Sinha described the heavy rainfall as a natural calamity and said BJP workers and government agencies had worked through the night to deal with the situation. Its district president Brijesh Gautam said the party’s doors were open to people dissatisfied with BJP policies and seeking to oppose the ruling party. Referring to Tripathi, Gautam said he had earlier been elected on a Samajwadi Party ticket before joining the BJP.
