As the election campaign in Delhi reaches fever pitch, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) traded charges over a BJP advertisement in newspapers, purportedly targeting AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on his ‘gotra’ (clan) and raising questions over donations to his party.
The two controversies prompted a war of words between the two main political adversaries in the capital with the BJP claiming that the AAP was “indulging in hawala at midnight” and the AAP accusing the BJP of insulting Mr. Kejriwal’s clan. Both rushed to the Election Commission to file complaints against each other.
While Mr. Kejriwal , AAP convener and former Delhi Chief Minister, hit out at the BJP for having “crossed their limit” by “attacking” his clan in the cartoon advertisement and denigrating the entire Agarwal community, the BJP accused him of giving a “casteist and religious overtone” to a political statement made by it in the advertisement.
“We have highlighted to the EC the unfortunate incident of use of caste in the election process (by AAP), which is in violation of the Model Code,” Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal told presspersons after meeting EC officials.
‘Dubious sources’ The row over funding and donations to the AAP erupted with AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM), a breakaway group of the AAP, alleging that the party had received Rs. 2 crore from “dubious sources” last year.
According to AVAM, the party accepted four donations of Rs. 50 lakh each at midnight on April 5, 2014. While the AAP denied the charges, the BJP was quick to seize the moment and brand the money received as “Hawala at Midnight.”
