Delhi Elections 2015: BJP advertisement targeting Arvind Kejriwal sparks war of words

NEW DELHI: A controversial BJP advertisement purportedly targeting AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's "gotra" triggered a war of words with both the parties rushing to the Election Commission to file complaints against each other.

While Kejriwal slammed the BJP for having "crossed their limit" by "attacking" his gotra (clan) in the advertisement that appeared in several newspapers and thereby denigrating the entire Agarwal community, the BJP accused him of giving casteist overtone to the issue.

"BJP in the past few days has been putting out ads personally attacking me and my children, I kept quiet because Anna used to say that if someone personally attacks you, you should have the strength to bear it. But today they have crossed their limit and denigrated the entire Agarwal community. They should apologise for it," he told reporters.

Complaining to the EC, BJP alleged that AAP had violated the model code of conduct by trying to give "casteist and religious tone" to a "political statement" made by it in an advertisement.

"We have highlighted to EC about the unfortunate incident of use of caste in the election process (by AAP) which is in violation of the Model Code," Union Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters after meeting the EC officials here.

While the AAP in its complaint slammed the saffron party for having "tagged an entire sect of the Indian society and called them 'updravi' (anarchist)".

The BJP advertisement targets Kejriwal for allegedly threatening to disrupt the Republic Day parade last year while complaining this year that he was not been invited for the event.

"The country's crores of people consider Republic Day as a national festival and feel proud about it," the ad said adding that Kejriwal, belonging to an 'anarchist gotra' was ready to even disrupt it.