Days after former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that he would not respond to Rahul Gandhi’s attack on him, the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday released a poster putting Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s name among a list of 11 “corrupt” people and claiming that the former Delhi Chief Minister will take on them. For the first time, Congress Leaders Rahul Gandhi, Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit were featured prominently in the Arvind Kejriwal-led party’s campaign poster.

Besides Rahul, the poster also has images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP leaders Virendra Sachdeva, Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma, Vijender Gupta and Ramesh Bidhuri and Congress Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit. The poster with an image of security personnel making way for Kejriwal and his wife Sunita has a tagline, “Kejriwal’s honesty will be trouble for the corrupt.”

The poster referred to Kejriwal as being “honest”. “Kejriwal ki imandari sare beyimano par padegi bhari [Kejriwal’s honesty will prevail over all the dishonest people],” reads the poster.However, the inclusion of Rahul Gandhi signalled that the gloves are off for AAP. The AAP and Congress are part of opposition bloc ‘INDIA’, however, are not fighting the Delhi election together.

While Congress leaders have attacked Kejriwal on the corruption front, Rahul has not referred to graft allegations against AAP though he had likened Kejriwal to Modi on “propaganda and false promises”. Rahul had targeted Kejriwal on the issue of development over his governance track record, claiming that he cannot match the achievements of former Delhi Chief Minister and Congress leader Sheila Dikshit.

Meanwhile Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba, who is contesting against Atishi from Kalkaji assembly seat hit out at Kejriwal after AAP in its poster labelled Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sandeep Dikshit and Ajay Maken as “dishonest”. “You (Arvind Kejriwal) insulted Sheila Dikshit and Manmohan Singh. Now, he says in the interview that Manmohan Singh was the most honest Prime Minister. He should apologise to Dr Singh’s wife. You were begging Congress for an alliance. We made a huge mistake by allying with you on seven seats and supporting you during the Lok Sabha elections,” Lamba said.

Rahul had previously alleged that Kejriwal was following PM Modi’s “strategy of propaganda and false promises” while failing to address rising pollution, corruption, and inflation in the capital. On another occasion, he charged that both the Prime Minister and the AAP chief do not want marginalised groups, such as Dalits and tribals, to receive their due.Congress leader Ajay Maken, who previously labelled Kejriwal “anti-national,” and Sandeep Dikshit, the son of Sheila Dikshit contesting against the AAP supremo in the New Delhi constituency, also appear on the poster.

Meanwhile, Delhi Congress on Saturday approached the Election Commission of India with a complaint of a “defamatory poster” on social media uploaded by AAP against its leaders. According to the complaint, the ruling party in Delhi targeted its former president Rahul Gandhi along with other leaders.

“This is to bring to your kind notice that on Saturday, AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) on its authorised X handle has posted a defamatory picture against various senior Congress Leaders - Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, AICC treasurer Ajay Maken, and Sandip Dikshit,” it read.

The post was headlined “Ek akela padega sab par bhaari,” and bore a picture of Arvind Kejriwal with the caption ‘Kejriwal ki imaandari,’ and those of Congress leaders beneath his, captioned “sare beimano par padegi bhaar,” the complaint read. “The post itself is in violation of the Model Code of Conduct as well as the provisions of Representation of Peoples Act 1951. Furthermore Kejriwal has been projected as an honest man and targeting senior Congress leaders such as Gandhi, Maken, and Dikshit are dishonest people. “It is submitted that the said post is baseless and without any authenticity thereby trying to malign the reputation of senior Congress leaders during the election time. The said post is a malicious attempt for political gains,” the complaint stated.