Four days after it censured Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal for violation of the Model Code of Conduct and asked him to be more circumspect in his utterances, the Election Commission on Tuesday told him to “desist” from making such statements, and warned of “stern action.”
The EC was referring to Mr. Kejriwal exhorting voters in Delhi to take bribes if offered by the BJP and Congress, but to vote for the AAP.
The warning came on a day when the AAP’s political rivals, the BJP and the Congress, demanded that Mr. Kejriwal’s nomination be cancelled. If the BJP slammed Mr. Kejriwal for “defaming” the party by accusing it of bribing voters, the Congress said he had “cheated” the people by declaring a false address in his nomination.
“Today we came to the EC to complain against Mr. Kejriwal for misleading the people of Delhi,” Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay told journalists, “by accusing parties of bribing voters. We have demanded cancellation of his candidature and banning him from giving any speech.”
Simultaneously, the Congress’ Kiran Walia asked the EC to remove Mr. Kejriwal’s name from the electoral rolls and bar him from contesting elections.
After resigning as Chief Minister, Mr. Kejriwal shifted from Tilak Lane to Kaushambi (Ghaziabad), but Ms. Walia said, he applied for a voter card citing Vittalbhai Patel House as his address: the EC rejected this, saying it was his office, not his residence. Subsequently, he gave an address in BK Dutt Colony that the EC accepted. But the Congress has told the EC that this, too, was an AAP office. The BJP has complained to the EC about the use of photographs of its Chief Ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi on AAP posters, with the caption “opportunist” beneath them. Ms. Bedi has sent a legal notice to Mr. Kejriwal on this issue. The BJP has also objected to the AAP pasting opinion polls on the backs of autorickshaws.
