A political row erupted in New Delhi on Monday after the Opposition Aam Aadmi Party accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of taking down photographs of BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh from the chief minister’s office.

The Aam Aadmi Party claimed that the images were replaced with those of Mahatma Gandhi, President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the BJP claimed that the allegations were false and were made to hide the Arvind Kejriwal-led party’s “corruption and misdeeds”.

Earlier in the day, Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Chief Minister Atishi claimed that the BJP had “shown its true anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh face” by removing the images of Ambedkar and Singh from the chief minister’s office.

She also shared photographs of the office when she was chief minister that showed images of the two leaders on display and another of the room with portraits of Gandhi, Murmu and Modi with the newly-inducted Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal also claimed the two images were removed. “This has hurt millions of followers of Baba Saheb,” he said on social media. “I have a request to BJP. You can put the photo of the Prime Minister but do not remove the photo of Baba Sahib. Let his photo remain there.”

Gupta responded: “Should the photo of the head of government not be put up? Should the photo of the president of the country not be put up? Should the photo of father of the nation Gandhi Ji not be put up?”

She added: “Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb are respectable personalities of the country and our guide. So, this room is of the Chief Minister of Delhi and as the head of the government, we have given them the space. It is not my work to answer them. I am answerable to the people.”

BJP publicity chief Amit Malviya later shared images of the chief minister’s office on social media that showed the pictures of Ambedkar and Singh displayed on another wall instead of behind the chief minister’s desk.

“This is the room of the Chief Minister of Delhi, where the pictures of all the great men are still hanging,” he said. “Liquor scam accused Arvind Kejriwal cannot go to the Chief Minister's office, so he is resorting to cheap politics of spreading confusion. The public humiliated him so much that he was not even able to show his face after the defeat, but still he is not desisting from his cheap actions.”

This came days after Gupta was inducted as chief minister on Thursday. She is the Hindutva party’s first chief minister in the national capital in 26 years.

The BJP defeated the Aam Aadmi Party in the polls on February 8. Polling was held on February 5.

Gupta had defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s Bandana Kumari and Congress’s Parveen Kumar Jain by a margin of 29,595 votes in the Shalimar Bagh constituency.

While the Hindutva party won in 48 constituencies, the Aam Aadmi Party bagged 21 seats. A party or coalition needs to secure 36 seats in the 70-member Assembly to form the government.