New Delhi, March 19 Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the site of the Palam fire incident on Thursday to meet with the families of the victims and alleged that BJP workers were "creating disturbances and behaving inappropriately."
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva accused Kejriwal of making baseless allegations, and claimed that party's local MLA Kuldeep Solanki was attacked by AAP leaders and workers.
Kejriwal alleged failures in the firefighting systems, stating that timely action could have saved lives.
"We have heard that the fire brigade did not arrive in time, and their hydraulic lift was also not functioning. If timely action had been taken, many lives could have been saved," the AAP national convenor told reporters.
"I came to meet the grieving families and express my condolences, but here, BJP goons were creating disturbances and behaving inappropriately instead of showing sympathy. They are intimidating the victim families," Kejriwal said.
A family that has lost 9 people is being threatened and intimidated. My demand is that this incident be investigated impartially," he added.
Sachdeva said that since the fire broke out yesterday morning, it has been publicly known, as stated by neighbors and eyewitnesses, that the lower floors of the building housed godowns and shops where large quantities of flammable materials were stored.
These materials caught fire, and within moments, the blaze spread throughout the entire building. Many deaths had already occurred before the fire brigade arrived.
He said it was unfortunate that AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, were blaming the fire brigade to divert attention from the core issue of storing flammable materials in the building.
Palam BJP MLA, Kuldeep Solanki, alleged that Bharadwaj and his party workers tried to create chaos during the condolence meet held to pay homage to the victims of the fire incident.
"They have little sympathy towards those who passed away and their kin. Since yesterday, they have been indulging in petty politics," Solanki said.
Their only objective is to gain political mileage from this tragedy," he charged.
Solanki also claimed that AAP workers and supporters attacked him, and he will file a police complaint against them.
A scuffle broke out between AAP and BJP workers, forcing the police to intervene and separate both groups.
Ex-AAP MLA from Dwarka, Vinay Mishra, who was at the spot since morning, said that he was "attacked" by BJP members.
"About 40-50 bouncers and goons close to the local MLA started throwing chairs to spoil the atmosphere. They are saying that if CM Rekha Gupta hasn't come, how can Arvind Kejriwal come first?" he said in a post on X.