Two days after the police crackdown on posters targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, similar posters calling for the ouster of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal emerged in Delhi this morning.
Thousands of posters carrying the slogan "Modi hatao, desh bachao (remove Modi, save the country)" were removed by the cops in a massive operation on Tuesday. Six people, including two owners of a printing press, were arrested and several cases were filed following the incident.
The latest posters that emerged today slammed Mr Kejriwal as a "dishonest, corrupt dictator", and carried the slogan "remove Arvind Kejriwal, save Delhi". The posters claimed they were put up by BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
Mr Kejriwal said he has seen the posters calling for his ouster and that everyone has the right to paste such posters in a democracy.
"I don't have any problem with such posters. I can't understand why the printing press owner and the six poor men who were pasting the posters were arrested yesterday. This shows the PM is scared. What difference does it make if four people paste such posters? It doesn't look good that such a powerful prime minister has to deal with this," he said.
The poster war is the latest in a string of BJP-AAP face-offs after the arrest of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the new liquor policy case.
The arrests were made for defacing public property and the posters were required to carry the name of the printing press under law, said police explaining their action. Of the 138 cases filed, 36 were for anti-PM Modi posters, they added.
Mr Kejriwal discarded the police explanation and said that the PM is "scared".
"FIRs (first information reports) have been filed over the posters. Why is Modi ji so scared? Anyone can put up this poster. Such a scared Prime Minister, such an insecure Prime Minister," he said.
The cops also seized some 2,000 posters that were allegedly being delivered in a van to the AAP office.
The AAP, in a tweet, sought to know what was objectionable in the posters and termed it the "peak of Modi government's dictatorship". It has also announced a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi today to demand the PM's ouster.
The BJP slammed the AAP for violating the law while putting up the posters.
"AAP doesn't have the courage to say that they put up the protests. They broke the law while putting up the posters," said Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana.
Meanwhile, the printing press owners, who were arrested for not carrying the printing press' name on the posters, told the cops they had received an order to print 50,000 "Modi hatao, desh bachao" posters.
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