BJP, AAP indulge in war of words

NEW DELHI: A day before the Bawana by-poll, the BJP on Tuesday accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP of running an unfair election campaign.

"AAP and its leader Kejriwal are masters of the art of running dual and dubious election campaigns and levelling baseless allegations to malign characters of political opponents," Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said at a Press conference here.

Tiwari was referring to a poster which featured photos of AAP leader Imran Hussain and Kejriwal that was printed allegedly by the party's minority wing.

The poster stated: "Do you understand the pain of what happens if the votes of our community splits. Because the community vote split in Uttar Pradesh, see the kind of government that has come in the state. Nobody is there to listen to us."

Meanwhile, the AAP alleged in the complaint that some miscreants were "deliberately" circulating objectionable and communal posters –which also carried the image of Imran Hussain –to malign the image of the party. "We also registered a complaint with the Election Commission in this connection," said AAP leader.

In the same case, the BJP also approached the poll panel and registered a complaint against the AAP for distributing the pamphlets for creating "religious hatred" in the constituency.

Delhi BJP chief Tiwari said the dubious campaign methods seen in the Bawana by-elections in the form of communal appeal posters on Monday or the Aam Aadmi Party Chandni Chowk legislator Alka Lamba's tweet with a "fake" TV survey showing AAP leading in the bypolls are a "continuity of Kejriwal's old games".

Tiwari, who represents the northeast constituency of Delhi in the Lok Sabha, also described the AAP's tactics of communal polarisation of Muslim votes as part of its "dirty tactics campaign brigade" headed by Kejriwal.