Trolled for Being Excluded from 1st List, BJP's Twitter Star Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga Fielded from Hari Nagar

New Delhi: Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, who was trolled heavily on social media after his name did not feature in party’s first list of candidates contesting the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, finally made it to the second list on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

While Bagga was pitching for a ticket from Tilak Nagar, the party has fielded him from Hari Nagar for the polls scheduled for February 8. Thanking everyone, the elated BJP leader posted a rap song on Twitter, ‘Bagga, Bagga Har Jagah’, to highlight his fight against various social and political issues.

Twitter-savvy Bagga, who has over 6.4 lakh followers, was made the BJP spokesperson in 2017. He started his career with a lesser known outfit, Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (BSKS). The “nationalist” organisation called itself a ‘task force against traitors, anti-nationals and corrupts (sic)’.

Bagga, who wears his patriotism on his sleeve, first came into the limelight in October 2011 when he was accused of beating lawyer-activist and then AAP leader Prashant Bhushan for his radical views on Kashmir. He had allegedly barged into Bhushan’s Supreme Court chambers, slapped, punched and kicked him in the face, tore his shirt and abused him.

After the attack, which left Bhushan with several injuries, Bagga had openly taken credit for the assault and called it ‘Operation Prashant Bhushan’. “He try to break my Nation, i try to break his head. Hisab chukta. Congrats to all. operation Prashant Bhushan successful (sic),” he said.

Later pictures of the injured Bhushan with torn shirt were circulated on the internet.

He had made headlines again after he barged into a seminar and attacked writer Arundhati Roy during an event. His outfit had also defaced walls around the Pakistan High Commission and pasted posters demanding freedom for Balochistan.

Again, in 2012, his outfit threatened to force Swami Agnivesh to drink urine after he voiced concerns over news reports that a Visva-Bharati University girl was forced to drink urine by her hostel warden for bedwetting.

In the same year, Bagga and his colleagues claimed credit for attacking Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

In 2015, the BSKS also started an online news and opinion blog dedicated to Narendra Modi called the NaMo Patrika. On July 1, 2015 he was hosted by the Prime Minister at his official residence on Lok Kalyan Marg, along with 149 pro-right other media influencers in an event called #super150.

Known for his proximity to senior BJP leaders and the RSS, Bagga’s appointment as party’s spokesperson in 2017 was seen as BJP’s attempt to attract youth and Sikhs ahead of the crucial civic polls that were held in April.