NEW DELHI: After

MP

took a dip in the Yamuna and praised the river's "cleanliness", his party colleague and Union minister

on Friday proposed a "swimming competition" between the two.

Sharing Tiwari's video on X, Rijiju wrote: "Manoj ji, don't you think that in Yamuna ji's much cleaner water, there could be a swimming competition between the two of us?"

Ahead of Chhath Puja, Tiwari on Thursday took a dip and swam in the Yamuna at Sonia Vihar in Delhi. The North East Delhi MP praised the efforts to clean the river under the leadership of chief minister Rekha Gupta.

Tiwari said he was “overjoyed” that the work had made it possible for him to enter the river. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gupta, saying the aim was to provide Delhi residents with a clean Yamuna.

“How can we not appreciate the work that has been done here? I will tell Arvind Kejriwal that this is all a sign of cleanliness. There might be crocodiles in the water here, but crocodiles come in clean water,” Tiwari said.

He added that his visit was meant to send a message and was not intended to shame Kejriwal.

The Aam Aadmi Party, however, disputed Tiwari's claims, saying its workers had visited the site and exposed what it called the BJP's false claims about the river's cleanliness.

A party worker claimed that the water at the site was black and heavily polluted. The workers also said Tiwari had taken a dip during a Yamuna ghat cleaning drive and described his claim of drinking the river water as “completely false”.

AAP accused Tiwari, who is from Purvanchal, of “staging theatrics” ahead of Chhath Puja. It also issued an open challenge to the BJP MP, saying, “Take a dip where the drain water flows into the Yamuna, drink the water and livestream the entire exercise for the public across all your social media accounts. People elected Manoj Tiwari as their MP because they trusted him, but he is trying to mislead the people of Delhi.”