I-T notice ‘revenge’ for CM’s Gujarat appeal, says Sisodia

‘Action a day after Kejriwal urged voters to defeat BJP in State’

November 29, 2017 01:23 am | Updated 02:21 pm IST - New Delhi

 Coming clean: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia with a pile of papers that he claimed had details of every donation made to the AAP, at a press conference on Tuesday.

Coming clean: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia with a pile of papers that he claimed had details of every donation made to the AAP, at a press conference on Tuesday.

Denying allegations of irregularities in the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) donations, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said that the recent Income Tax Department notice to the AAP was “revenge” for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s appeal to Gujarat voters to defeat the BJP.

On Sunday, Mr. Kejriwal had appealed to Gujarat voters to vote for any party other than the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections. A day later, the I-T Department confirmed that it had issued a notice to the AAP to recover ₹30.7 crore.

Sitting next to a pile of documents, which he said were details of every donation received by the party, Mr. Sisodia said that the Aam Aadmi Party had maintained records of its donations and submitted the same to the I-T department and the Election Commission of India.

‘Targeted by Centre’

He said that the AAP was the only political party that had been transparent in its funding, but was being targeted by the Centre.

Citing the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reports, the minister claimed the BJP and the Congress had the highest percentage of unaccounted donations.

“This is an attempt to muzzle the voice of the AAP. The notice was sent after Mr. Kejriwal’s appeal to the people of Gujarat to vote against the BJP in the upcoming state assembly polls,” he said.

The AAP is contesting on limited seats in Gujarat, where elections are slated for December 9 and December 14 in two phases.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.