The Delhi
Police has arrested 14 Aam Aadmi Party workers for the clashes that broke out
on Wednesday outside the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters. An FIR has also
been registered at the Parliament Street police station on charges of rioting,
damaging public property and obstructing public servants. The FIR mentions the
name of AAP leaders Ashutosh and Shazia Ilmi as having led the mob, but they
have not been booked.
This comes
after angry clashes and stone pelting on Wednesday as AAP and BJP workers clashed
in Delhi, Lucknow and even Gujarat, soon after the Lok Sabha election dates
were announced. The detention of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in Gujarat on
Wednesday sparked off street clashes between AAP and BJP workers.
The BJP and
AAP are likely to meet the Election Commission on Thursday. The Delhi Police is
also expected to submit its report on the incident to the EC on Thursday.
Meanwhile,
Kejriwal has apologised for the violence and street clashes between AAP and BJP
workers in Delhi, Lucknow and many other places and appealed for calm.
"Our workers were protesting peacefully. But they may have thrown one or
two stones at the BJP workers after they were attacked. I don't think this is
right and I apologise on behalf of my party. I also appeal for calm and ask my
supporters to not protest further," Kejriwal said.
The AAP
chief, who's on a Gujarat tour, also added, "We've toured various parts of
Gujarat and we see that there is no development, even though Modi claims there
is. There are ruins instead of infrastructure for primary healthcare
centres."
AAP leaders
also accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of ordering action against
Kejriwal. "Modi had ordered for everything that happened today. BJP does
not want the reality of Gujarat to come to light," said AAP MLA Jagadeep
Singh.
AAP workers
first targeted the BJP headquarters in Delhi around 5:30 pm, after hearing
reports that the Gujarat Police had detained Arvind Kejriwal in Patan. AAP
workers were seen hurling stones while BJP workers inside the office also
attacked them throwing chairs outside.
AAP leader
Ashutosh was at the forefront of the incident. "This is Narendra Modi's
politics of hate. This is the same as the one seen during the 2002 riots,"
he said.
On the other
hand BJP leader Nalin Kohli said, "They were pelting stones at us. I had
to lead the counter-attack."
The
situation outside the BJP headquarters soon went out of hand and the police had
to use water cannons to control the violence. More than 20 people from both
sides were injured and had to be taken to hospital. As reports of the clash
came in, in Lucknow too, things took an ugly turn as street fights broke out.
The protestors used lathis to beat each other even as the police stood and
watched as mute spectators.
In Gujarat,
Arvind Kejriwal's car, which was unoccupied, was reportedly attacked. The
Gujarat Police, meanwhile, denied that Kejriwal was detained at all, saying he
was merely questioned as he had not informed them of his roadshow as per the
Model Code of Conduct.
The Election
Commission has now sought status reports from all states
