The Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Office in Delhi and sought action against the Aam Aadmi Party for allegedly “indulging in violent acts” and for violating the Model Code of Conduct ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, PTI reported.
The National Capital Territory of Delhi will vote on May 12.
In the complaint, the AAP has been accused of burning the BJP’s 2014 manifesto with images of its leaders. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and party leaders such as Manish Sisodia, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Kailash Gahlot and Pankaj Gupta on March 13 had set fire to the manifestos to attack the BJP on the issue of full statehood to Delhi.
“The AAP leaders are violating MCC [model code of conduct] by either not seeking permission for such events from the Election Commission or they have sought permission for election meetings from the Election Commission and misused such permission to violate MCC by burning BJP’s manifesto,” said the letter written by SN Verma, co-convener of the legal department of BJP Delhi Pradesh.
Verma said directions should be issued to AAP leaders and workers to “cease and desist from such violent acts”.
According to officials from the Chief Electoral Office of Delhi, five complaints have been made against both parties for organising gatherings to burn manifestos without permission. On March 13, Union minister Vijay Goel had led BJP workers in burning AAP’s manifesto as a symbolic tower of its “failed” promises.
‘AAP trying to create communal tension’
The Delhi BJP on Monday had said it has sought an appointment with the Election Commission to complain about the AAP allegedly violating the model code of conduct by trying to incite communal tensions.
Vijender Gupta, leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, said AAP’s Lok Sabha candidate Raghav Chadha had tweeted images of a cow and its calf standing at a doorstep and written “Door to door campaigning by BJP”.
“We have taken an appointment with the Election Commission of India and will apprise them about how the AAP is politicising cow, which is a symbol of harmony, and trying to create communal tension,” said Gupta.
BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri said several complaints have been filed at the Govindpuri, Pul Prahladpur and Sangam Vihar police station against the ruling party for trying to incite communal tension through Chadha’s tweets. “We will urge the EC to invalidate the AAP and urge them to ensure that FIRs are filed on these complaints,” he said.
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