The Delhi BJP and Congress on Monday slammed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for doing “caste-based politics” after he hosted a sanitation worker and his family from Gujarat, at his residence.

The Opposition leaders dubbed it a "political stunt" and accused him of "hypocrisy" and told him to take care of Dalits living in the city.“Kejriwal is not a well-wisher of Dalits and sanitation workers,” charged BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.

 He said even the status of ‘Corona Warrior’ was not extended to sanitation workers during the pandemic. "About 82 per cent of the amount allocated for the welfare of these sanitation workers in the Delhi Government budget was not spent. Now by inviting a Dalit of Gujarat to Delhi, AAP is indulging in gimmick and hypocrisy," he charged. The Kejriwal Government did not release `1 crore compensation each to those who died during different waves of the pandemic, he alleged. “In the Delhi Government's budget, `433,65 crore was allocated for various schemes for SC, ST and OBC people in 2020-21.

This allocation was reduced to `268.52 crore out of which only over 18 per cent was spent. The expenditure on these schemes was only `32.28 crore of the allocated `425.13 crore in 2021-22,” he claimed.

Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar also termed the AAP convener's move a "political stunt" to "mislead the Dalit community." "Many Dalit sanitation workers serving during the Covid pandemic died due to the virus in Delhi but the Kejriwal Government did not honour its commitment of giving `1 crore compensation to the kin of the deceased," he claimed. "Kejriwal is playing vote-bank politics to fool the people ahead of Assembly polls in Gujarat," he charged.