Delhi elections 2015: BJP’s new ad refers to Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘upadravi gotra’, angry AAP chief sees caste angle

[related-post]

In the ad, published in Hindi, the BJP said, “Republic Day is regarded by many as a national festival and they feel proud about it. But your troublemaker community was ready to disrupt it.” The saffron party’s taunt reference was to Kejriwal’s threats of disrupting R-day parade last year and his complaint that he was not invited this year to the celebrations.

“BJP in the past few days has been giving few advertisements personally attacking me. They attacked me and my children, I kept quiet because Anna used to say that if someone personally attacks you, you should have the strength to bear it. But today they have crossed their limit,” he later told reporters.

“They have called the entire community ‘updravi’. BJP’s fight is with me, whatever they have to say they should say it against me, they should not attack the entire Aggarwal community,” he said.

In his campaigns, Kejriwal has often positioned himself as belonging to the ‘baniya’ (trader) community, which has traditionally been vocal supporters of the BJP. Delhi’s trader association, of which Aggarwal community is a part, is considered to be significantly large enough to tilt scales in favour of either party especially in areas like Chandni Chowk and Sadar Bazar.

Kejriwal has threatened to complain to the Election Commission if the BJP does not apologize to the Aggarwal community and withdraw the ad.

In its defence, the BJP said the ad was only a metaphorical way to portray AAP’s anarchist mindset and that the party did not believe in dividing people on caste lines.

“We don’t divide society on caste lines. They are twisting it as they don’t understand political metaphors,” said Piyush Goyal, union power minister and senior BJP leader.

In the run up to the polls, both parties have traded barbs against each other in a campaign which has become increasingly fierce. This is the last week of campaigning for the elections, scheduled to take place on February 7. The votes will be counted on February 10.