Sealing issue: Parties throw 'open debate' challenge to each other

With the ongoing sealing drive taking centre stage in the the run up to Lok Sabha elections next year, Delhi units of BJP, AAP and Congress were busy in throwing "open debate" challenge to each other.

Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken Wednesday challenged AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to accept an open debate challenge on any issue at the place and time of his own choice.

"Let him (Kejriwal) decide the issue, place and time for an open debate. I will prove that he destroyed Delhi," Maken told reporters.

Earlier in the day, AAP's trader wing chief Brajesh Goyal set a stage at Ghantaghar in Chandni Chowk for an open debate with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.

Tiwari, who did not accept the challenge from Goyal, dared Kejriwal to have a debate with even a booth-level BJP worker, claiming that he will be rendered "speechless" because of his "long list of failures".

The BJP termed AAP's open debate as a "flop show", claiming that traders in Chandni Chowk avoided joining it.

Delhi BJP spokesperson and secretary of Chandni Chowk Nagrik Manch Praveen Shankar Kapoor claimed that the retail traders in the area "completely rejected" AAP's "drama" of open debate.

AAP leader and party in-charge of Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat, Pankaj Gupta charged the Delhi BJP chief of running away from the debate.

"Tiwari's dual character was exposed today before the people of Delhi. He makes tall claims and accused the AAP for the sealing drive but ran away when called to join the open debate," Gupta said.

He said if the BJP was sincere on the issue of sealing, its government at the Centre must bring an ordinance to stop the ongoing drive carried out by municipal corporations.