"Metro Man" E Sreedharan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s candidate from Palakkad for the April 6 Assembly polls, came under attack from the Left parties on Saturday after images of voters washing and touching his feet during his campaign went viral on social media.
Sreedharan defended the act, saying that the voters were expressing their respect towards him in the traditional Indian way.
Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Binoy Viswam criticised the technocrat, saying it spoke volumes about the direction in which the BJP was taking the country.
The images circulated widely on the social media and showed the voters receiving Sreedharan, washing and touching his feet.
In one picture, a voter was seen kneeling before him, while another visual showed women touching his feet.
In an era where politicians touch feet of voters during election campaigning, voters getting blessings of candidate#SpirtualPolitics#Palakkad #BJP candidate #ESreedharan, Metro man of India entering a new domain but with same intention "serving the country pic.twitter.com/KEWrcWzGSZ
— Yogendran (@yogendranbk) March 18, 2021
Asked about the controversy, Sreedharan said that the images were clicked when he was being welcomed in a traditional Indian way.
Slamming his critics, the 88-year-old candidate said, "It is our Indian tradition. What is wrong with it? They were expressing their respect. They were not worshipping (me)."
Criticisng Sreedharan, Binoy Viswam alleged that the technocrat "glorified" the act of washing his feet.
"He is saying it is Indian tradition. This is an example of the direction in which the BJP is taking our country, the political system and democratic values," he told reporters.
The CPI leader said that India had looked at Sreedharan as "a torchbearer of modern technology", but he changed after entering into the "prison of the politics of the BJP and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)".
Launching his campaign earlier this week, Sreedharan had said that the BJP is fighting the polls on the plank of development.
Sitting MLA Shafi Parambil of the Congress and the CPI(M)'s CP Pramod are his main rivals in the election.
Watch: E Sreedharan's feet-washing creates row