BJP misusing Delhi officers to target ministers: Manish Sisodia on recovery notice of Rs 163 crore to AAP

The BJP demanded that AAP's bank accounts should be seized and properties of its leaders who allegedly used government funds for publicity attached

The Delhi Department of Information and Publicity demanding Rs 163.62 crore from AAP for political advertisements in the garb of government publicity material triggered a war of words between AAP and BJP on Thursday with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accusing the saffron party of having "unconstitutional control" over officials to target the city government and its ministers.

On its part, the BJP demanded that AAP's bank accounts should be seized and properties of its leaders who allegedly used government funds for their publicity should be attached.

Meanwhile, AAP National General Secretary Pankaj Gupta wrote to DIP stating that the demand for Rs 163.62 crore was "arbitrary, perverse and contrary to facts and provisions of law and extant policies as such not accepted by AAP”. He also sought copies of the advertisements, which the DIP said were political advertisements issued by the AAP government.

The DIP's recovery notice for 163.12 crore came nearly a month after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena directed the Chief Secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the AAP for political advertisements it published under the garb of government advertisements. According to the DIP notice, 106.42 crore is the principal amount and another Rs 64.30 crore is penal interest.

Also Read — AAP gets Rs 163.62 cr recovery notice for political ads

Sisodia said advertisements of BJP Chief Ministers are published in Delhi editions of newspapers and whether the BJP would recover money from them. "BJP should stop misusing Delhi's officials to target Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the ministers of Delhi government," he told a press conference.

"Look at the illegitimate use of the unconstitutional control over Delhi's officers -- BJP asked Delhi government's Directorate of Information and Publicity Secretary Alice Vaz (IAS) to issue a notice to recover the cost of advertisements given in outside states from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal," he said.

"In Delhi's newspapers, the advertisements of several BJP CMs of other states are published and hoardings of their Chief Ministers are all over Delhi. Will the costs of those be recovered from BJP Chief Ministers?" he said.

Senior BJP MP and former Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said, "AAP publicised their party and their leaders with government funds and now that they have been asked to reimburse it, they are agitated. The BJP demands that AAP's bank account should be seized and the money should be recovered from the bank accounts of the AAP leaders who used the funds for their publicity," he said.