Kejriwal alleges BJP ad abused his community, to move EC

Aam Aadmi Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal today said that he will complain to the Election Commission against the BJP for allegedly attacking his community in an advertisement.

"BJP in the past few days has been giving few advertisements personally attacking me. They attacked 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," he told reporters.

"They have called the entire community 'updravi'. BJP's fight is with me, whatever they have to say they should say it against me, they should not attack the entire Aggarwal community," he said.

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

"Desh ke karodon log gantantra divas ko rashtriya parv mante hain, us par garv karte hain (The country's crores of people consider Republic Day as a national festival and feel proud about it). Aur apka updravi gotra isme vyavdhan dalne ko taiyar tha (And your trouble maker community was ready to disrupt it).

"This is unacceptable and they should apologise from the entire community. We will complain to EC that BJP has stooped down to racial attacks. Delhi's people do not like this abusive politics," Kejriwal said.

The AAP chief also called a meeting of top party leaders at his residence to deliberate on the issue.

AAP leader Ashutosh came down heavily on the BJP, saying people will teach the saffron party a lesson in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

"BJP stooped another low. Now it has attacked Kejriwal's GOTRA in today's advertisement. People belonging to his GOTRA will teach BJP Lesson (sic)," he said on micro-blogging site on Twitter.

Kejriwal has often described himself as a "baniya" to reach out to traders' community, which have traditionally supported BJP.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) last week also took a swipe at the BJP for its newspaper advertisement in which Anna Hazare's sketch was shown with a garland, asking the saffron party whether it had had "killed" the veteran anti-corruption crusader.
AAP leaders Kumar Viswas and Yogendra Yadav also slammed BJP for the controversial advertisement.
"I am sure public will give an appropriate answer to this personalised attack by BJP on February 7. Now that they are targeting him by attacking his gotra, it only shows that they have the same mentality as Sakshi Maharaj and the so called Sadhvi," Viswas told reporters.
Yogendra Yadav pointed out that EC should have seen the advertisement before it went to print.
"As per the rules, EC has to approve any advertisement before it goes to print. We will ask the EC if they had seen the advertisement," he said.

"I feel if BJP will give one such low-grade advertisement every day and one interview of Kiran Bedi live on TV, half of our campaigning job will be done.

The remaining half we will complete by telling people about our plan of action for reducing electricity, water tariffs and dealing with other issues. So, I am in a way thankful to them.

"There was lot of hue and cry when Arvind Kejriwal had called himself a 'baniya'. I want to see what will be the reaction to this advertisement now," added Yadav.