Congress includes 1984 riots accused Jagdish Tytler in MCD poll panel, BJP says 'salt on Sikhs' wounds'

The Congress on Thursday set up several committees for the upcoming elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, but what raised eyebrows was the inclusion of Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. 

Tytler has been appointed as a member in the Pradesh Election Committee. There are altogether 20 members on this committee, including senior leaders Ajay Maken, Sandeep Dixit and Udit Raj.

"The Congress rubs salt on the wounds of Sikhs of 1984 carnage by inducting Jagdish Tytler in their Delhi State Election Committee. It shows they have no repentance of what Rajiv Gandhi and his team did in 1984," tweeted BJP's Delhi spokesperson RP Singh.

Tytler is accused of leading mobs against Sikhs in the riots that followed then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. At least 3,000 people were killed in the riots. The allegations against him are linked to the killing of three persons by a mob. 

The BJP has been often hitting out at the Congress over the presence of 74-year-old Tytler in several of the Grand Old Party's events and has also accused it of shielding him. Tytler, on the other hand, has been justifying that the charges against him have not been proven yet.  

He even became a minister in the Manmohan Singh government in 2004 but was forced to quit in wake of the protests by the opposition.

Another riot-accused Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, was sentenced to life in jail by the Delhi High Court, which cancelled an earlier court order letting him off.

The other pradesh election committee members are Anil Chaudhary, Ajay Maken, Jai Prakash Agarwal, Manish Chatrath, Devender Yadav, Subhash Chopra, Arvinder Singh Lovely, Krishna Tirath, JK Jain, Sandeep Dixit, Parvez Hashmi, Ramesh Kumar, Haroon Yusuf, Rajesh Lilothia, Dr. Udit Raj, Kiran Walia, Rajkumar Chauhan, Dr. Narender Nath, Ramakant Goswami, Mangat Ram Singhal, Jai Kishan, Ali Mehdi, Shivani Chopra, Mudit Agarwal, Abhishek Dutt, CP Mittal, Rohit Chaudhary, Tarun Kumar, Alka Lamba, Naseeb Singh, Mateen Ahmed, Mukesh Sharma, Bijender Singh, Kamal Kant Sharma, Manoj Yadav, Rannvijay Singh Lochav, Amrita Dhawan, Sunil Kumar and Kunal Sehrawat.

Filing of nominations for MCD polls began after issuance of a notification in this regard on November 7. The last date of filing papers is November 14. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is November 19. Voting for the polls will be on December 4 and the results will be announced after counting of votes on December 7.