The Congress party has lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission (EC) against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), accusing it of publishing a ‘dishonest’ and ‘derogatory’ post targeting the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and other senior Congress leaders.
The complaint was submitted on Saturday after the post, shared by AAP on social media, sparked outrage within Congress ranks.
A delegation of Congress leaders, accompanied by a group of lawyers, met with officials at the Election Commission to voice their concerns.
The party has called for immediate action to ensure that the controversial post is removed, claiming it was part of a broader attempt by AAP to damage the reputation of Congress leaders during the ongoing election season.
Congress alleges that the post was not only false but was intended to malign the image of its senior politicians.
The controversy began when AAP shared a post on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle earlier that morning. The post featured a message promoting AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal as the ‘only clean and honest’ politician, while accusing several others, including Congress leaders, of being ‘dishonest.’
The post singled out Rahul Gandhi, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken, and Sandeep Dikshit, a key candidate who is contesting against Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency.
The post also portrayed Kejriwal as a ‘lone warrior’ capable of taking on the BJP and other political opponents. In a move that Congress has slammed as an attempt at political mudslinging, AAP highlighted Kejriwal’s supposed integrity, contrasting it with the alleged dishonesty of Congress leaders.
As the post gained traction and dominated the headlines, a war of words broke out between the two parties. Congress, which had previously been allied with AAP, swiftly condemned the post as a personal attack on its leadership. The party issued a statement calling it a direct assault on its leaders’ reputations.
In its complaint to the EC, Congress argued that this incident was part of a pattern of smear campaigns being waged by AAP. The party also pointed out that some of AAP’s own leaders had faced corruption charges and spent time in jail.
Congress claimed that this undermined AAP’s credibility in criticising others.
The Congress party further stated that the post violated the Model Code of Conduct, which is designed to ensure a level playing field during elections.
They requested that the Election Commission order AAP to remove the post from its social media platforms and issue a directive to prevent further malicious campaigns of this nature.
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