The AAP has asked for Home Minister Amit Shah to be banned from campaigning for 48 hours

New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP has asked the Election Commission to ban Union Home Minister Amit Shah from campaigning in Delhi for the next 48 hours. In a letter to the poll body the AAP accused Mr Shah of circulating “false videos (of government schools) in order to (de)fraud the people of Delhi” and requested that these videos be taken down from Twitter.
The letter also said BJP MPs Gautam Gambhir and Parvesh Verma – who has been served a notice for comments about Shaheen Bagh protesters – made the videos on the “direction of Amit Shah”.

The demand came hours after the Election Commission directed the BJP to remove Mr Verma from its list of star campaigners ahead of elections in Delhi next month, for comments about the peaceful sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh.

“This is in reference to violation of Model Code of Conduct by Amit Shah and other BJP leaders/MPs by posting false, fabricated and concocted videos in order to malign the image of Aam Aadmi Party… and play fraud against people of Delhi,” the AAP’s Sanjay Singh told reporters on Wednesday.

Late last night the AAP had hit back after a video tweeted by Mr Gambhir showed a dilapidated and run-down building in East Delhi that was claimed to be a still-functioning Delhi government school.

The video, meant to undermine the AAP’s achievements in making quality education affordable to all, was refuted by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who doubles as the Education Minister.

He pointed out that particular school had been shifted to a new address last year, and a notice informing this change had been prominently posted on the gate.

The AAP, which claimed 67 of 70 seats in 2015 polls and is hoping for a similarly impressive performance this time, is banking on populist measures and improvements to government schools.

As a result, the quality of schools has become a major issue, with the BJP repeatedly attacking the AAP on this point. Last week Amit Shah and Arvind Kejriwal sparred on Twitter over CCTV cameras in schools to ensure safety of students.

This is not the first time the AAP has called on the poll body to ban a BJP leader in Delhi Assembly Election 2020; the party had asked for a ban on former member Kapil Mishra (for “creating enmity among classes”).

Mr Mishra was subsequently banned for 48 hours.
This is also not the first time the poll body has been called on to ban Mr Shah from campaigning; complaints were filed ahead of both 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with Mr Shah being banned in the first instance and cleared, despite multiple alleged violations, in the second.