At Ambedkar event, BJP MLA brags about party, booed off

DEHRADUN: A day after running into controversy for his verbal feud with fellow BJP MLA Kunwar Pranav Champion, BJP’s Jhabreda MLA Desraj Karanwal was booed off stage and the mike snatched away from him when he started bragging about his party’s achievements at an event in Roorkee to mark Ambedkar Jayanti where he was the chief guest. He later apologised to the audience and was allowed to complete his speech.
Karanwal had been invited on Sunday to speak at an event organised by the Roorkee nagar nigam on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.
Karanwal, a first-term MLA who was earlier with BSP, got off to a good start, even throwing a bit of Urdu poetry in his speech. But minutes later, as he went on about how the BJP had brought the SC/ST Amendment Bill, people started leaving their chairs asking him to stop.
As soon as the organisers realised that people were getting offended at the BJP legislator praising his party at an event meant to pay tributes to Ambedkar, they snatched the mike from him.
Later, the situation was explained to the MLA who apologised to the people. He was allowed to complete his speech then.
Talking to TOI, Karanwal claimed that there was nothing wrong in him talking about the BJP and Narendra Modi. He alleged that it was actually some workers of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) present in the hall who had raised an objection.
On Friday, Karanwal had called Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, MLA from Khanpur constituency, a “fake man” with “fake educational and sports credentials”. On Saturday, Champion had challenged Karanwal to a wrestling bout after which Karanwal held a press conference alleging that Champion should be sent to a lunatic asylum.