Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advisor Hiren Joshi has warned several television news channel owners and their editors not to give coverage to the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat.

At a national conclave of the party’s elected representatives in Delhi, Kejriwal claimed Joshi has threatened TV channel owners and editors with dire consequences if they carried news about him or his party.

Joshi is the officer on special duty for communications and information technology in the prime minister’s office.

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“Several owners of big channels, their editors were showing me the filthy abuses that he [Joshi] sends them,” claimed Kejriwal, who is the convenor of the party. “Will do this if you show Kejriwal, will do that if you show Kejriwal. There is no need to give air time to Aam Aadmi Party. You are misusing your channel.”

The Delhi chief minister asked Joshi to stop threatening the media. “If these editors share the screenshots of Joshi’s messages, both the prime minister and his advisor will not be in a position to show their faces to the country,” he said at the conclave.

The prime minister’s office and Joshi have not yet responded to the allegations.

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On Sunday, Kejriwal also alleged that the Modi government has been trying to frame his colleagues in false corruption cases because the Bharatiya Janata Party is “not able to digest the growing popularity” of the Aam Aadmi Party, PTI reported.

“We are going to form a government in Gujarat,” he declared.

The Gujarat elections are scheduled for December. The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for more than two decades. The Aam Aadmi Party has been working to make inroads in the Saurashtra region, where the BJP had suffered electorally in 2017.


Also read: What does the chief minister’s chair mean in post-Modi Gujarat?