The BJP on Wednesday sent a defamation notice to Delhi minister Atishi after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader on April 2 called a press conference and claimed that she was asked to join the saffron party to safeguard her political career or face arrest.

“This time we won’t let her escape. She has to answer and provide evidence for what she is claiming. We asked her to apologise by the evening (Tuesday). She didn’t and so we have sent her a legal notice to which she will have to reply within 15 days,” Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, retorting that the party did not have any vacancy for a leader like Atishi.

After sending the legal notice, Delhi BJP said if Atishi did not reply to the notice within the stipulated time, there would be legal actions against her. The BJP leaders outrightly refuted the statement and said Atishi should reveal the name of the person.

As per the defamation notice, by Delhi BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor, the party has made claims that the Delhi Minister has ‘deliberately and with malicious intent made statements which are not only false, scandalous, concocted and illusionary, but defamatory to harm the reputation of BJP but also of its members.’

According to the notice, Atishi has ‘neither revealed specific information about the source of information nor given any details about the act of BJP’. The notice reads, “Devoid of any specificity your statement is an intentional endeavour to reflect your own imagination and apprehension. To call for a press conference and specifically name the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) without disclosing the nitty-gritties portrays your malafide intentions to demean the reputation of the BJP and my client.”

The party has accused the AAP leader of tarnishing the image of the BJP leader while asserting that it has become a ‘habit of AAP leaders to side step the main issues by accusing BJP of poaching’. “That it appears that it has become a habit of the leaders / workers of your party to side step the main issues by every time alleging that BJP has been attempting to poach your MLAs / leaders by promising to pay huge amounts of monies. None of such allegations have been ever substantiated through any cogent evidence,” the notice reads.

The controversy erupted following the AAP leader’s statement about the BJP in a press conference, where she claimed that the party has either asked to join them or face the ED. Atishi remarked, “The BJP, through one of my close aides, approached me to join their party to save my political career, and if I do not join the BJP, then in the coming month, I will be arrested by the ED.”

She further said that she won’t be scared of the BJP and claimed to be Kejriwal’s soldiers, alleging that in the coming two months before the Lok Sabha elections 2024, total four leaders will be arrested including herself, Durgesh Pathak, Raghav Chadha and Saurabh Bharadwaj by the central probe agency.

BJP has asked her to immediately withdraw the said speech and telecast her apology on television and social media failing which the party will initiate, both civil and criminal, proceedings against the AAP leader.