Sharad Yadav writes to EC in defence of Kejriwal

Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav defended Arvind Kejriwal and wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner to review his decision of issuing show-cause notice to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener.

Kejriwal had asked voters to take money from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress but vote for the AAP. Yadav said the show-cause notice was not justified and was untenable in our democracy. 

In a statement on Thursday, the JD(U) leader said Kejriwal made thee statement in an election rally and this is common. “In my opinion, such statements are made during election time by different political parties and mostly by those parties which have meagre resources,” he said. 

“I do not think he has given any encouragement to voters to take bribe to vote. Rather, he has wanted them to exercise their right to vote as per their choice,” he has added. Yadav pointed out that black money is being used in elections and it “belongs to certain corporate and business houses”.