EC said that they accept it as a “special case” due to the intense campaign period in Delhi.
New Delhi: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, in his response to the Election Commission notice on Friday, said the statements he made on the “poison mixed” in the Yamuna remark were about “only and only” the high amount of ammonia found in the river water, released from Haryana to Delhi. He also criticised chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar for his inaction on Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, calling for a criminal case against him.
Mr Kejriwal reached the poll panel office with Delhi CM Atishi and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann. His visit was accepted as a “special case” due to the intense campaign period in Delhi. The EC said it will examine the reply in detail and take a decision on merit.
“I categorically and explicitly again convey that the alleged statement was made in direct reference to the unprecedented and dangerously high levels of ammonia contamination in the raw water being supplied to Delhi from Haryana. Any other inference of my statement is incorrect”, the AAP chief said in his reply. He answered the poll panel’s questions point by point.
Explaining the chronology of events that led to that statement, Mr Kejriwal said: “After finding highly toxic water with high levels of ammonia being sent to Delhi from Haryana, the chief minister of Delhi called up the chief minister of Haryana in the last week of December and requested him to either take steps to reduce ammonia or provide additional water to dilute it”. He also submitted in his reply that both chief secretaries spoke several times during this period to solve the issue.
“The ammonia levels started increasing very sharply from 15 Jan onwards (around 3.2 ppm on 15 Jan) and reached 7 ppm a few days later. At this stage, it was felt there was a deliberate attempt on the part of the Haryana CM to influence the Delhi elections by sending polluted water to Delhi with very high levels of ammonia. When the grievance remained unresolved and ammonia levels reached unprecedented levels of 7 ppm, Delhi chief minister Atishi was forced to do a press conference on 27.01.2025 and the said press conference was tweeted by her on X at 1.17 pm on 27.01.2025, thereby highlighting the concern with respect to rise in the level of ammonia in water reaching Delhi due to discharge of contaminated water from the state of Haryana”, he said, adding: “I quoted Ms Atishi’s tweet and tweeted at 1.51 pm on 27.01.2025”.
Prior to visiting the EC office, Mr Kejriwal told reporters that the language of second notice hints that the Election Commission had already decided on what action it would take. He alleged that the poll panel was “shooting the messenger” by targeting the AAP for raising its voice. He claimed that it was a political conspiracy to force half of Delhi to remain thirsty due to the “poisonous” water having high ammonia to “defame” the AAP ahead of the elections.
The AAP chief also announced that the ammonia level has come down to 2.1 PPM. “I want to congratulate the people of Delhi. Today, the struggle of the AAP’s Delhi government, and 2-2.5 crore people of Delhi has succeeded and delivered results. On January 26-27, the Haryana government was sending toxic water to Delhi with 7 PPM of ammonia. Today, that level has come down to 2.1 PPM. With 2.1 PPM, most of our water treatment plants can function properly, and people can get relatively clean water,” he said while addressing the media.
The AAP supremo continued: “It is because of our struggle that the ammonia level has decreased. This clearly proves that the BJP’s Haryana government was deliberately sending this contaminated water to Delhi to create chaos. If they had no control over it, how did the ammonia level in the water suddenly rise, and how did it drop just as suddenly after we raised our voice?”
