Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ramesh Bidhuri sparked a row on Sunday with his remarks about Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi.

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party called Bidhuri’s comments “anti-women”.

The controversy erupted a day after the BJP fielded Bidhuri as its candidate from the Kalkaji constituency for the Delhi Assembly elections. He will contest the polls against Atishi.

At a rally on Sunday, Bidhuri claimed that former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had said that he would make roads in the state “as smooth as [BJP leader and actor] Hema Malini’s cheeks”, The Indian Express reported.

“Lalu lied. He couldn’t do it,” the newspaper quoted Bidhuri as saying. “But I assure you, just like we improved roads in Okhla and Sangam Vihar, we will definitely make all roads in Kalkaji as smooth as Priyanka Gandhi’s cheeks.”

In response, Atishi said that it was “well known” that the BJP was “anti-women”, The Indian Express reported. “But it is deeply concerning that the responsibility for Delhi’s security lies in the hands of this same party,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said, adding that Bidhuri’s remarks revealed the mindset of the BJP.

“If BJP leaders, former parliamentarians, and Assembly election candidates hold such views about women, how can the BJP ensure safety of women in Delhi?” she asked.

The Congress also said that the BJP is “extremely anti-women”. Bidhuri’s remarks were not only shameful but also showed his “disgusting mentality” towards women, party leader Supriya Shrinate said.

“This is the real face of BJP,” Shrinate said on social media. “Will the women leaders of BJP, women development minister, [BJP chief JP] Nadda ji or the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] himself say anything about this bad language and thinking?”

She added: “In fact, the father of this anti-women language and thinking is Modi himself, who uses words like mangalsutra [nuptial chain] and mujra [dance of courtesans]. So what else will his people say? An apology must be made for this poor thinking.”

Responding to the criticism, Bidhuri said that the Congress must first apologise for the remark Yadav had allegedly made about Malini.

“Hema Malini is also a woman,” PTI quoted him as saying. “Those who made mistake first should apologise first. She was from a simple family, she is not a woman, and the one who is from a known family, is a woman. How is it possible? Congress should rectify first, then we will also rectify.”

Claiming that everybody should be respected, Bidhuri said that Yadav was a Cabinet minister in the previous Congress-led Union government. “They should have made him apologise [for his remark about Malini]. They did not ask for it because she was from a simple family. This is their hypocrisy.”

At another event later in the day, Bidhuri claimed that Atishi had dropped her surname Marlena and used Singh instead.

“Marlena has become Singh,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “She changed her father. She was Marlena earlier, but has become Singh now.”

Atishi had used Marlena as her surname till 2018. She dropped it and began using Singh as her surname after it was alleged that she was trying to polarise votes. Marlena is a portmanteau of the names of political thinker Karl Marx and Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.

In response to Bidhuri, the Aam Aadmi Party again said that his remarks showed the BJP’s “anti-women mindset”.

“Abusive BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri used vulgar and dirty language against the woman Chief Minister Atishi,” the party said on social media. “Seeing its defeat near, BJP has become so desperate that it is openly abusing women.”

The Assembly polls in Delhi are expected to take place in February. The Election Commission has not announced the schedule yet.

Former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that BJP leaders had crossed “all limits of shamelessness”.

In a social media post, Kejriwal said: “The people of Delhi will not tolerate the insult of a woman chief minister. All the women of Delhi will take revenge for this.”

Bidhuri later apologised for his remarks.

“Some people are making statements on social media for political gain with a wrong perception based on a statement given by me in some context,” he said on social media. “My intention was not to insult anyone. But still, if anyone has been hurt then I express my regret.”

Bidhuri had sparked a row in September 2023 after using communal slurs in Parliament against Danish Ali, a Lok Sabha MP from the Bahujan Samaj Party at the time.

Bidhuri, the South Delhi MP at the time, had made the remarks during a parliamentary debate on the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.

The matter was subsequently referred to the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee.

The BJP had not fielded Bidhuri from the South Delhi seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Also read: Ramesh Bidhuri and the descent of India