On Thursday, January 11, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) lambasted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over its expenditure on advertisements.
In a press conference, Delhi BJP leader Manoj Tiwari demanded a refund of the government funds spent on advertisements by the AAP. He also demanded that the bank accounts of AAP should also be seized.
Citing reports that the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) has issued a notice to the National Convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal, to around Rs 163 crores within days.
“The AAP government is wasting the hard-earned money of Delhi residents on advertisements. We’ve been saying for a long time that this government is a government of fake advertisements. The AAP will now be made to pay Rs 163 crores. Who gave them permission to spend so much money on advertisements?” Tiwari said.
MP Shri @ManojTiwariMP is addressing a Press Conference. #KejriwalExposed https://t.co/JFSwGfu4jg
— BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) January 12, 2023
He also slammed Manish Sisodia, who held a press conference after reports of the DIP issuing a notice to the AAP national convenor emerged, claiming that the BJP is using a government official against the Delhi CM. Sisodia had accused BJP of establishing an “unconstitutional control” over the Delhi government officials for its political gains.
Furthermore, Sisodia alleged that the BJP used its control over the officials to issue a DIP notice against AAP. He added that the example of BJP exploiting its unconstitutional control over Delhi government employees is evident as it used an IAS officer Alice Vaz posted in DIP to issue a notice against CM Kejriwal. He went on to claim that the officer has “threatened” Arvind Kejriwal with “necessary action as per law” upon failing to deposit Rs 163 crores spent on AAP’s advertisements outside Delhi during the year 2016-17.
Addressing an Important Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/3HqvLO4PTT
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) January 12, 2023
It is worth noting that the political war of words began after the Directorate of Information and Publicity served a notice on Arvind Kejriwal, the National Convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party, requiring him to pay up to Rs 163 crores within 10 days. The development comes just days after Delhi Lieutenant General (LG) VK Saxena directed the Chief Secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from AAP for political advertisements published under the guise of government advertisements during the fiscal year 2015-2016.
