Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bharadwaj reach Jantar Mantar to support wrestlers

Delhi Cabinet ministers Gopal Rai and Saurabh Bharadwaj reached Jantar Mantar to express solidarity with the wrestlers protesting against WFI chief Brij Bhushan with allegations of sexual harassment

Delhi Cabinet ministers Gopal Rai and Saurabh Bharadwaj along with some party MLAs on Wednesday reached Jantar Mantar to express solidarity with the wrestlers protesting against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh with allegations of sexual harassment.

Rai, who is also the AAP Delhi convener, had on Tuesday announced that representatives from 360 villages of the city, including MLAs and councillors from rural areas will visit the site to chalk out a strategy for the movement.

"Today, people and our elders from our villages have come to support these wrestlers at Jantar Mantar. These players emerge from these villages. They send their daughters outside in the hope that they will be respected outside the same way as they are respected at home," Saurabh Bharadwaj said.

"Someone told me that these girls are Jats. They were not Jats when they were winning medals for the country. I am a Pandit and I am behind these Jats. The Jats will take the movement ahead and Pandits will be behind them," he added.

BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma had earlier alleged that the AAP has plans to hijack the wrestlers' protest.

In a tweet in Hindi, Verma said, "Big news: At the behest of Arvind Kejriwal, Saurabh Bharadwaj held a meeting at 9 am on Tuesday with Aadil Khan, Durgesh, Neeraj and Sandeep."

"There is a plan to hijack the dharna of players. Adil has been assigned the task of buying clothes for mats, tents and turbans. After Shaheen Bagh, this. Kejriwal is behind all this," Verma had said in a tweet.

Reacting to Verma's comments, AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said the BJP leader should speak against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and not indulge in "dirty politics."

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Pathak said, "Parvesh ji should be ashamed of himself. He is doing dirty politics. Had his father Sahib Singh Verma been alive, he would have gone against the party's line and supported these girls. They have been sexually harassed. Parvesh ji should speak against his party MP."

The wrestlers have been staging a sit-in since April 23 with allegations of sexual harassment against the WFI chief, who is also a BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh.

The protesters have been demanding criminal action against Singh for the alleged sexual harassment and intimidation of seven female wrestlers, one of whom is a minor.

The Delhi Police filed two FIRs against the WFI president on Friday on allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by the wrestlers. The protesting wrestlers had earlier moved the Supreme Court seeking the registration of FIRs against Singh.