Kejriwal a 'fake Hindu', 'lying machine'; Yamuna in bad shape due to his 'sins': Assam CM Sarma

New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday fired multiple salvos at AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, calling him a "lying machine" and a "fake Hindu", and claimed the Yamuna was unclean in the national capital because of his "sins".

Addressing rallies for BJP candidates in Babarpur and Adarsh Nagar ahead of the February 5 assembly election, he also alleged that Kejriwal put Hindu priests after maulvis for government schemes.

Kejriwal has been paying a stipend to maulanas for 10 years, Sarma said and claimed the AAP chief announced a monthly honorarium for Hindu priests and Sikh granthis with the elections in mind.

"Kejriwal does not just speak lies … He has become a lying machine. He cannot speak the truth," he said.

"Hindus have to be first. For 10 years, he did not remember the priests. He understood the strength of Hindus when elections came," he said.

He promised to pay the priests a monthly stipend that was earlier paid to maulanas, Sarma said.

"For 10 years, you paid maulanas… After 10 years, when it is time to go, he is remembering the priests. Our country is of Hindus… Priests will not come second. Why didn't you give them a stipend when you gave it to the maulanas?" the BJP leader asked.

"'Iss nakli Hindu ko pehle bahar kar dena Delhi se (You have to first oust this fake Hindu from Delhi'," the Assam chief minister said.

Ever since the Ram temple was consecrated in Ayodhya, people have understood the strength of Hindus, he asserted.

"This Kejriwal is a lying machine. He said, 'I will not contest elections till the Yamuna is cleaned.' Has the Yamuna been cleaned?" Sarma asked.

"Kejriwal needs to be cleaned. After the elections, I will make him take a dip in the Ganga and then the Brahmaputra. If I can take a dip in the Ganga, Brahmaputra and the Narmada, why not in the Yamuna? It is only because of Kejriwal's 'paap (sins)' that the Yamuna is not clean," he said.

The Assam chief minister also slammed Kejriwal over his "Yamuna poisoning" allegation, saying no Hindu would poison anyone's water.

"We are Hindus and offering water to anyone is considered auspicious in the religion. How can a Hindu poison another's water? How is this even possible? How will a BJP government in Haryana poison water, which is consumed by leaders of its own party in Delhi? Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi drinking poisoned water?" Sarma asked.

He reiterated that the Yamuna was in a bad shape in Delhi not because of anyone poisoning it from Haryana but because of Kejriwal's sins.

On January 27, the AAP supremo alleged that the BJP government in Haryana had mixed poison in the water supplied to Delhi through the Yamuna.

"Thanks to DJB (Delhi Jal Board) engineers, who caught it and stopped the water, it did not enter Delhi. If that water got mixed with drinking water, a mass genocide would have happened," Kejriwal had said.

He had claimed the BJP wanted to mix "poison" in the water supplied to Delhi to trigger chaos so that AAP could be blamed for people dying.

Kejriwal was issued two notices by the Election Commission over the matter on a complaint from the BJP.

At another public meeting in Adarsh Nagar, Sarma said the "AAP-da (disaster)" government had wasted 10 years in Delhi.

"Now it is promising a monthly salary to priests only because elections are coming up. It has always been in support of maulanas while I have been saying in Assam that Muslims want their sons and daughters to be engineers and doctors, and not maulanas," he said.

Sarma alleged that Kejriwal was running a "factory of lies" and wore his time in jail like a badge of honour.

"He is so proud, like he was jailed during the freedom movement. He is forgetting he went to jail in a liquor policy case, he should have some shame. Now he is singing praises that he resigned as chief minister just to mislead people. How could he have continued as chief minister given the conditions of his bail put by the Supreme Court?" Sarma asked.

"When he was with Anna Hazare, he used to say, 'I am an activist and will not fight elections.' What happened? He had said, 'I will not use government cars and not stay in government accommodation.' His 'Sheesh Mahal' is in front of everyone," the Assam chief minister added.

Elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on February 5, and the votes counted on February 8. PTI GJS SKC SZM SZM