Kejriwal threatening voters to stop development works if Arora not elected: Complaint to CEO
Citing the recent speeches of AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal who has been campaigning for the party's Ludhiana West bypoll candidate Sanjeev Arora, Ludhiana resident- cum-social activist Kimti Rawal, 57, has filed a complaint against him to Punjab's chief electoral officer (CEO) that the AAP chief was 'directly threatening the voters to stop developmental works in the constituency if they won't vote for Arora'.
'Although I am a member of BJP's RTI cell, I have filed this complaint as a common voter as it is a crime to threaten voters by saying that their developmental works won't be done if they will vote for Opposition party's candidate. The Election Commission needs to take strict notice of how the chief of the ruling party is openly making such threatening statements as video evidence is available in all official videos released by the party,' Rawal said.
Requesting for 'legal action against open and direct threat to voters of Ludhiana', Rawal in his complaint wrote: 'The creator of the Indian Constitution, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, has given every citizen of India this legal right to vote for anyone according to his/her own opinion without any bias, fear, and without any discrimination. It is a legal crime to intimidate a voter in any way. The Indian Constitution has appointed the Election Commission as the responsible body for conducting a fair and impartial election system.'
'The elections for Ludhiana West constituency are going to be held on 19 June 2025, for which the entire government staff of the Punjab government has been put on alert… It seems this is not an election, but a war is being fought… Aam Aadmi Party's National Convener Shri Arvind Kejriwal directly threatened the voters of the West constituency, saying, 'If you vote for any other candidate and win, there will be no development work in your area.. The government is ours',' reads the complaint. 'In several of his campaign speeches in Ludhiana, Kejriwal said: 'Jiski sarkaar hai ussi ka MLA banana (Elect only that party's MLA who is running the government).'
'Kejriwal also said that Mr Sanjeev Arora is a rich man. Apart from the government, he can also spend money from his own pocket. I am sending you copies of his statement and video clip as evidence, which directly intimidates and lures the voters to vote for his candidate who is a current Rajya Sabha member. It is a crime to threaten the voters this way…The voters of Ludhiana West should be allowed to fulfil their responsibility to vote impartially and fearlessly and protect the rights of Punjab, Punjabis and Punjabiyat. The Hon'ble Supreme Court should be informed about his intimidation and threats to the Punjabis,' said Rawal in his complaint.
In one of his recent speeches, Kejriwal said: 'A man came to me and I asked him 'for whom will you vote?' He said (Bharat Bhushan) Ashu (Congress candidate). I asked why. He said because 'I am a traditional Congress supporter'. I said tell me one thing. If the road in front of your house needs repairs, if you stop getting water supply, or if there's any other issue.. who will get your works done? Ashu can't get your works done because he is in Congress whereas government in Punjab is of AAP and CM Bhagwant Mann is ours. From will Ashu get funds and power to get your works done? Ashu is in Opposition who can neither get your roads made nor parks. Hence vote for AAP if you want your works done.'
Reacting to the complaint, Punjab AAP spokesperson Neel Garg said: 'It is not a threat. He just means to say that if the MLA and government are of the same party, then there will be better coordination for conducting development works at a faster pace. BJP often says that there should be 'double engine' sarkaar at the Centre and in the state. We only mean to say that it will only lead to better coordination if the MLA and the state government are from the same party.'
Punjab chief electoral officer Sibin C said: 'We have to check and examine the parts of speech in the context of model code of conduct (MCC) rules to see if there has been any violation. Action will be taken accordingly.'
Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab.
Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab.
She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on 'Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers' had won accolades at IIMC.
She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012.
Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab.
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