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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Friday wrote to the Election Commission (EC), describing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Delhi chief Satish Upadhyay’s complaint as “mala fide” and claimed that after his “revelation” of the alleged nexus between the BJP leader and power companies in Delhi, the party has changed its campaign face.
“It is respectfully submitted that the allegations leveled against me in the complaint are mala fide and motivated. It is apparently a counter blast by the complainant and/or his party to distract the people by diverting attention… The complainant has failed the people of Delhi. Even his own party has not fielded him in this election,” Kejriwal said, while replying to a notice issued by the EC.
The EC had issued a notice to the former Delhi chief minister last week on the basis on Upadhyay’s complaint who had termed the allegations leveled against him as “baseless and unverified”.
In a press conference, Kejriwal had alleged Upadhyay was a majority stakeholder in firms, which provided services to the BSES Delhi. Upadhyay had immediately dismissed these allegations and said such companies didn’t exist. Kejriwal said his allegations didn’t hamper the model code of conduct, as he had disclosed this information “to show up such conflict of interest with public interest only". He added that people who campaign for elections and have “vested business interests with companies having billions of rupee stake annually in enterprise” falling under the government ought to disclose such interests to the public.
“It is now a fact the BJP now has a new campaign leader for the elections after revelation and even the complainant is now not given a ticket to contest the forthcoming elections. Obviously, there is no substance in the complaint,” Kejriwal said.
On Monday, BJP declared newly inducted former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as the chief ministerial candidate of the party.
Attaching the documents which purportedly show Upadhyay’s stakes in the firm along with other evidence, Kejriwal told EC that Upadhyay should spell out his stand on audit of power companies.
