Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday accused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of using a “fake contest” to elect their CM candidate for Punjab Assembly polls by popular vote.

Addressing a Press conference, Sidhu said AAP deceived and scamming the people of Punjab by fraudulently claiming the party had received 21.6 lakh messages and calls in four days in the televoting held by it to receive people’s suggestion for the CM candidate.

“AAP launched a private number to host the fake contest to elect their CM candidate by popular vote. A private line was launched to receive and record responses. They allegedly announced the CM candidate by popular vote of 21,59,475 responses received within a span of four days. It means every second 12 incoming phone calls were ringing day and night. Even if it is day and night, even then 5,760 calls or messages cannot be received. It is a deceptive scheme to deceive people. He (Kejriwal) is promoting this fake news. He is a masquerader,” Sidhu said.

He said in general circumstances, the toll free number can still hold some load but there is no way a private number can hold so many responses. “Simple logic is, let’s assume they were receiving responses 24X7, then on an average they would have received and recorded 8 to 10 responses per second which is not humanly possible. On normal number (as launched by AAP) it can take up to more than 2,000 people team and at least Rs 25 Crore to Rs 30 Crore of expense required to do this exercise,” the Congress leader said.

Sidhu said the Congress has complained to the Election Commission on the matter. He said through this bogus campaign, Kejriwal created fake news.

“This mechanism to deceit and to create an illusion and propaganda of fake news is a complete violation of the Model of code of conduct and the Election Commission should take strict notice of it. AAP and Arvind Kejriwal should apologise for this scam from voters of Punjab and he should leave politics,” he added.

The Punjab Congress chief said Kejriwal takes the high moral ground, but is a trickster, a hypocrite and that his move was nothing but a deceptive scheme to fool the people of Punjab.