New Delhi: A delegation of senior AAP leaders on Tuesday met the Election Commission (EC) over the Delhi poll panel asking the party to modify its campaign song, and asserted that there was "nothing objectionable" in its lyrics.
The party on Sunday had claimed that the commission has "banned" its Lok Sabha campaign song "Jail Ka Jawab, Vote Se Denge", but officials of the Delhi poll body had said the AAP was asked to modify the contents of the song since it violated EC's guidelines and advertising codes.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) delegation included Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi, national secretary Pankaj Gupta and senior leader Dilip Pandey. After meeting the EC, Bharadwaj said they told the commission that many objectionable hoardings had been put up by the BJP all over Delhi for about a month.
"In these hoardings, opposition leaders, especially (AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal, have been shown in an objectionable manner through pictures. We had complained to the commission in this regard a month ago. What action has the commission taken on this so far?" he asked.
Talking about the song, he said they told the EC there was nothing objectionable in the AAP's poll campaign song. "We have given a detailed reply to the Commission in this regard," Bharadwaj added.
AAP leader Atishi alleged that it was after a month that the party finally got an appointment to meet the EC. The AAP was consistently seeking time on various issues since March 22, she claimed.
"While the EC promptly takes action against opposition parties when the BJP files a complaint, it has not taken any action on AAP's complaints regarding the BJP's content over the past month," she said. Atishi remarked that when the AAP released its campaign song, immediate action was taken.
"However, when Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate just before the elections, the Election Commission did not question it. And, when AAP made a campaign song about Kejriwal's arrest, the Election Commission objected to it," she said. Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said that it is "shocking" to see AAP leaders casting aspersions on the EC.
"Today before going to meet the Election Commission they announced that they would be raising the issue of objections on their campaign song but after meeting the election commissioners, they started talking about objections on BJP boards (hoardings). They didn't say a word on their objectionable campaign song," he said.
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