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Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has been asked to furnish proof backing his allegation that the BJP government in Haryana has poisoned the Yamuna water. The Election Commission, which asked him to produce evidence by 8 pm tomorrow following a BJP complaint, said in its letter that it was a serious allegation that could create animosity between states and carried a provision of a three-year jail term.
Days ahead of the assembly election in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal had claimed on Monday that the BJP was "mixing poison" in the city's water supply in an attempt to "create chaos... hoping the blame will fall" on his party's administration.
"The people of Delhi get drinking water from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh... but the Haryana government has mixed poison in the water coming to Delhi from the Yamuna and sent it here... it is only due to the vigilance of our Delhi Jal Board engineers that this water was stopped," he had said.
The claim, though, was contested by the Chief Engineer of the Jal Board who said it could lead to fear-mongering among the people.
The Election Commission, in its letter to the former Chief Minister, raised similar concerns.
"The electors tend to believe whatever is being said in public by their leaders and in that sense, the statement, if not true, affect the campaign discourse," the letter read.
The allegations are also "extremely serious in nature and unprecedented," the letter added.
"If true, this also has serious ramifications of creating enmity between regional groups, residents of neighbouring states, threat of law-and-order situation due to actual or perceived shortage of non-availability of water," the Commission wrote.