Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit has demanded that the Election Commission should cancel the candidature of Pragya Singh Thakur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal for calling Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse as a “patriot”.

Expressing strong disapproval at the remarks made by Thakur in which she termed Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse as a “patriot”, Dikshit said that such a person does not deserve to contest the Parliamentary election and she is also unfit to be part of a civil society.

Dikshit said that the BJP leader, who calls herself a “Sadhvi”, has not been condemned by any top leader of the BJP for her deplorable statement. “It has now been established that the Modi Government has unleashed a war to besmirch the image of the freedom fighters and historic personalities of the country,” she said, adding that the BJP has taken an avowed decision after careful consideration to discredit the heroic personalities connected with the Congress party.

“Modi and Shah should have withdrawn her candidature themselves for her toxic statement,” she said in a statement. Dikshit also said it was shameful that Thakur despite her “deplorable statement” was not “condemned” by any top leader of the BJP.

“Such a person not only does not deserve to contest the parliamentary election, but she is also unfit to be part of a civil society,” said the Delhi Congress president.

During a roadshow in Madhya Pradesh’s Agar town, Thakur had said.

Godse was a patriot and will remain a patriot. BJP president Amit Shah Friday came out strongly against the controversial remarks of his party leaders, including Pragya Singh Thakur, over Nathuram Godse, saying the BJP has taken serious note of their statements, which are against its ideology.