BJP says AAP violates model code by giving casteist spin to ad, to complain to EC

After being cornered by the AAP over an advertisement in which it was accused of deriding the entire Agarwal community, the BJP hit back by claiming that their rivals had violated the model code of conduct by giving a casteist spin to a political metaphor. “The AAP’s behaviour is completely against the code of conduct…The attempt to convert a political statement into a casteist one is against the code of conduct,” senior BJP leader and union minister Piyush Goyal told a press conference. [caption id=“attachment_2075305” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI image[/caption] He said that the word ‘upadravi’ meaning anarchist had been used metaphorically to refer to Kejriwal and his supporters and hadn’t targeted his gotra (sub-caste) or the Agarwal community in any way. “We have only put the truth before the Delhi people. If they (the AAP) don’t understand political metaphors then we can’t help it,” he said. Goyal said that the party believed in the highest level of political discourse and the advertisement only sought to highlight the anti-national and anarchist character of the Aam Aadmi Party. BJP’s Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay said that the party stood by its comments on the AAP that it had made in the advertisement. “We are going to bring the AAP’s attempt to twist the advertisement to the Election Commission’s notice for violating the model code of conduct,” Upadhyay said. AAP leaders and Arvind Kejriwal had attacked the BJP over today’s advertisement, one in a series of advertisements targeting him, saying that it targeted the entire Agarwal sub-caste. AAP had threatened to complain to the Election Commission about the matter.