NEW DELHI: Within two days of the announcement of dates for the Delhi assembly polls, the campaign turned personal as Aam Aadmi Party accused BJP state president Satish Upadhyay and general secretary Ashish Sood of having been part of a company that was installing and changing meters on behalf of discom BSES.

Refuting the claim, Upadhyay threatened AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal with a criminal defamation case and challenged him to prove the allegations.

AAP also named two other companies owned by Upadhyay, NCNL Transomedia Pvt Ltd and NCNL Power Pvt Ltd, both of which have allegedly become untraceable. Kejriwal claimed that both companies received major payments from Reliance companies and BSES.

Hours after AAP's press conference, Delhi BJP members addressed a press conference to counter the allegations. Upadhyay said he would file a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal. "These two
companies don't exist. How can a company's transactions be untraceable? He should not level allegations in the air. He should prove them. We will file criminal defamation against him,'' said Upadhyay.

Speaking to TOI, Upadhyay said, "He should take this to a logical end. He should prove his allegations. If he can't prove the claims about the two companies (NCNL Transomedia and NCNL Power), in
24 hours, he should quit politics. But if he is able to prove it, then I'll quit politics. He can't defame me or anyone like this. These companies don't exist."

Alleging that Upadhyay's conflict of interest was the reason why BJP did not implement its pre-poll promise of a 30% reduction in power tariff in Delhi and has instead hiked tariffs twice since forming the government at the Centre, Kejriwal said BJP had also not taken action against the two discoms in Delhi for failing to provide information to CAG for an audit that the AAP government had ordered in January 2014.