New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) has issued a show cause notice to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi minister Atishi, following her claims that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) approached her to join their ranks. In the notice, the EC has demanded that Atishi substantiate her allegations with concrete evidence.
Atishi had claimed that she and three other AAP leaders — Saurabh Bharadwaj, Raghav Chadha, and Durgesh Pathak — were advised to join the BJP or be ready to be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a month. She claimed that the saffron party approached her through a “very close” person to join it.
On Wednesday, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said a defamation notice demanding a public apology has been sent to Atishi.
“Atishi failed to provide evidence of who approached her, how and when. The AAP is undergoing a crisis in Delhi, which is why they are making such baseless allegations out of frustration. But we will not let her get away with this,” he said.
The defamation notice issued on April 2 stated, “You are requested to immediately withdraw the said speech and telecast your apology prominently on television and social media failing which my client shall be constrained to initiate, both criminal and civil, proceedings against you, at your own risk and cost.”
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and two other senior AAP leaders are already in jail in a money laundering probe linked to the now-scrapped excise policy. AAP MP Sanjay Singh, who was arrested in October, walked out of jail on Tuesday after the Supreme Court granted him bail a day before.
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