NewDelhi: On Thursday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also alleged that Election Commission officials came to the Delhi residence of Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann. Sources said that the EC team was standing outside the CM’s house and negotiating with Punjab police officials to gain entry. EC officials said they had received reports about cash being distributed.
In a statement reacting to the action, Mann alleged that the Delhi Police and the Election Commission were acting at the direction of the BJP to malign the people of Punjab. He tweeted: “Today at my residence, Kapurthala House, in Delhi, I got raided by the Election Commission team along with the Delhi Police. The BJP is blatantly doling out cash in Delhi, and Delhi Police and Election Commission have kept their eyes shut. No action is being taken. Punjab CM posted on X that ”The act of the Delhi Police and Election Commission to defame Punjabis at the behest of the BJP is condemnable in all respects.
Mann, a heavyweight AAP leader from Punjab, has come to Delhi to campaign for his party in the assembly polls. Opposition parties BJP and Congress have accused Mann and his supporters from Punjab of resorting to illegal means to influence voters in the national capital.
For the Delhi Assembly elections, AAP supporters arriving in vehicles with state government stickers, allegedly from Punjab, have essentially turned the national capital into “a jail for Delhi residents” a day ahead of the February 5 Assembly polls, BJP’s New Delhi candidate Parvesh Verma said here on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference, Verma urged Delhi Police to verify these vehicles’ identities, citing the seizure of a car from outside Punjab Bhawan on Wednesday. Until the next few days, Delhi faces risk with safety. He said police recovered booze, election materials, and Rs 8 lakh cash from a private vehicle with a sticker of the ‘Punjab Government’ on it.
Verma claimed the AAP was “caught lying,” but AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the Punjab government has said there was no such vehicle in Delhi and that the BJP was playing ‘dirty politics’ to “defame” his party.
To justify AAP’s anti-national accusations, Verma is also alleged to have said, “Thousands of AAP supporters from Punjab have mingled in many localities. They don’t represent the party when they campaign and travel in vehicles with Punjab government stickers.
AAP and Arvind Kejriwal were confused as they were on the verge of losing elections; he said that if the BJP came to power in Delhi, it would repeal free facilities and demolish slums.