Delhi minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi on Sunday said that more than 48 hours had passed since the party filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) against “objectionable posters” put up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but ECI had still not done taken any action on the matter or issued any notice. She added that the AAP will approach the Delhi high court to seek relief if ECI does not take action against the BJP.
On Friday, the AAP filed a complaint with the Election Commission against the BJP for putting up “objectionable” posters of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in place for the coming Lok Sabha elections. On Thursday, Atishi and other AAP leaders had visited the ECI’s office and filed a written complaint with the Delhi chief electoral officer regarding this.
In a post on X, Atishi said: “48 hours have passed since the AAP filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India against the BJP’s objectionable hoardings across Delhi. Till now no notice has been issued by the Election Commission to BJP so far. Will the Election Commission only send notices to opposition parties?”
Later, speaking at Jantar Mantar on the sidelines of theone-day fast against Kejriwal’s arrest, Atishi said, “…Today, EC is only working as a weapon for the BJP…I hope the three election commissioners will not be remembered as those who were not able to save India’s democracy…If EC does not take any action then we will move the high court.”
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said it was shocking to see Atishi repeatedly raising questions on the impartiality of ECI. “ECI is considered an expert body to carry out free and fair elections the world over. In several countries where local issues force foreign intervention in conduct of elections, it is ECI which is preferred worldwide. World over we see that the people who are losing in a game raise suspicion on the conduct of the umpires in the game and this is what Atishi is doing today in India.”
On April 5, EC issued a show cause notice to Atishi following her claims that the BJP approached her to join their ranks through a “very close person”. She had claimed that she and three other AAP leaders — Saurabh Bharadwaj, Raghav Chadha, and Durgesh Pathak — would be next in line to be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). EC in its notice asked her to back her statements with facts.
