Sisodia complains that AAP has been asked to pay Rs 163 crore for “political commercials” in 10 days.

A recovery notice for Rs 163.62 crore has been issued to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for Political Advertisements it ran as official government commercials.

For its political advertisements that were allegedly issued under the guise of official government advertisements, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been served a recovery notice for Rs 163.62 crore.

The recovery notice issued by the Directorate of Information and Publicity stated that the AAP must make payment within 10 days or else its office will be sealed (DIP).

AAP ran political advertisements masquerading as official government advertisements, and Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered the chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the AAP for those adverts.

According to an earlier Delhi LG decision, if AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal doesn’t comply, “all subsequent legal action, including attachment of the party’s properties, shall be conducted in a time-bound manner,” a source was quoted as saying.

99.31 crore of the total sum due is for the principal amount spent on political advertisements until March 31, 2017, and the remaining 64.31 crore is for penal interest on this amount.

AAP REACTIONS

Manish Sisodia, a leader in the AAP and Delhi’s deputy chief minister, responded on Twitter and stated, “LG and BJP are misusing Delhi government employees to continue targeting elected ministers and the AAP-led government, not to perform ANY public service task. They want to keep controlling “services” for this reason.”

He also attacked the BJP, claiming that “government hoardings with images of their CMs have been put-up all-over Delhi and advertisements of CMs of all BJP states are published in the Delhi media. Will the BJP chief ministers be held liable for their expenses? Is this the rationale behind the BJP’s desire to maintain illegitimate control over Delhi’s officers?

REACTION OF BJP TO THE NOTICE

Shehzad Poonawalla, the BJP’s spokesperson, referred to the ruling party in Delhi as the “AAP – Aur Advertisement-vali Party” after the party received a recovery notice and stated that “they should pay up instead of playing victim card.”

He posted on Twitter, saying, “The AAP government’s receipt of the notice to pay Rs 163 crore within ten days is to be applauded. AAP stands for Aur Ad-Vali Party. It broke Delhi High Court and SC orders by using public funds for political advertisements. Instead of playing the victim, they should pay up!”