New Delhi, Oct. 14 -- Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Wednesday accused the youth-led outfit Cockroach Janta Party of acting like a "B-Team" of the Aam Aadmi Party and challenged it to protest in Punjab over the killing of an anti-drug activist there.

Addressing a press conference, Gupta accused the Opposition parties and other outfits of "colluding with foreign elements" to harm India.

Alleging that the CJP never stages protests over issues in Opposition-ruled states, she challenged it to protest in Punjab where an anti-drug activist was murdered on Tuesday.

Activist Parvinder Singh alias Jhota, known for raising his voice against drug abuse and the illegal sale of addictive substances at chemist shops, was shot dead in broad daylight in a busy market in Punjab's Mansa district on October 13. "Why do they act like the B-Team of AAP and work only on agendas suited to the party?" Gupta asked.

She also slammed the CJP's insistence on protesting at Jantar Mantar, which has recently been denotified as a designated protest site, saying that they were bent on troubling Delhi people and "destroying" the city.

Despite Jantar Mantar's denotification, some leaders of the outfit breached barricades and entered the area on Tuesday, raising slogans demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Gupta criticised the Congress and AAP for their opposition to the SIR, pointing out that these parties never talk about the exercise in the states they have won elections.

She said the Congress and other organisations in collusion feel rejected by the people after electoral losses, because the public is satisfied with the Modi government's development works and the country's progress. "This is the reason why they are trying to harm the country in collusion with foreign elements who envy India," Gupta alleged. "They are hurt after losing power and are hence troubling the whole country for their political ambitions."

She said Delhi suffered losses amounting to thousands of crores of rupees, and traders and ordinary people were harassed due to their protests. "This is not the first time the SIR happened in the country: it was conducted in 2002 by the Election Commission," she pointed out.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.