Aam Aadmi Party accused the BJP of disrupting the poll campaign of its top leaders including Arvind Kejriwal on Friday and demanded the Election Commission to take action against the party.
“The AAP strongly condemns the attempts by the BJP workers to disrupt the movement of its leaders, including national convener Arvind Kejriwal, at Varanasi on Thursday,” the party said in a statement. AAP leaders were gheraoed by a huge group of protesters here Thursday night. Police had to use mild force to disperse the crowd before whisking away Kejriwal. Even on Friday, protesters gathered at various places visited by Kejriwal and other AAP leaders and shouted slogans.
Meanwhile, the BJP has distanced itself from Thursday’s incident saying that the protesters must be locals who might be opposed to Kejriwal.
AAP, however, continued to insist that the protesters were BJP workers and said that this was not for the first time that the saffron party has tried to create hurdles in Kejriwal’s campaign.
“BJP workers tried to block the movement of Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh at a busy chowk in the town. They not only indulged in illegal activities in full public view, but also made obscene gestures and used abusive language,” AAP said.
“Such an attempt by the BJP workers, in a constituency from where this party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is contesting elections, is a clear sign of the saffron party deliberately trying to vitiate the election atmosphere. The AAP will not be cowed down by such unacceptable behaviour of the BJP, and demands that the EC should ensure that no party should be allowed to create trouble during the polls,” it added.
“The BJP, which runs away from a healthy debate and avoids answering questions, is deliberately trying to create tension with a view to disrupt any possibility of the election being fought on real issues,” AAP alleged.