New Delhi: BJP working president J P Nadda on Monday "pulled up" Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur for her remarks that she was not elected to the Lok Sabha for cleaning up toilets, comments that were seen to be mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat' campaign.
She was summoned to the BJP headquarters, where Nadda conveyed to her the party leadership's displeasure with her comments made at Sehore in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.
Thakur was pulled up and asked to refrain from making statements that go against the party's programmes and ideology. The BJP MP declined to speak to reporters as she left the party office.
Addressing a meeting of BJP workers in Madhya Pradesh, Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case who is currently out on bail, had said the job of an MP is to work with MLAs, corporators and public representatives to ensure development.
"So, keep this in mind... We are not here for cleaning a drain. Is it clear? We are absolutely not (here) for cleaning your toilets,’’ she said.
Her comments were embarrassing for the BJP as Modi has made the 'Swachh Bharat' (Clean India) programme a centrepiece of his government's agenda.
But this is not the first time she has left the BJP red-faced. During the Lok Sabha poll campaign, she had hailed Mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse as a "patriot".
