AAP in court over ‘Aapki Apni Party’

NEWDELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday sought to know the stand of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and a newly registered Aapki Apni Party on a plea by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), challenging the registration of the party on the grounds that the acronym ‘AAP’ would create confusion among the voters.

Justice Siddharth Mridul issued notices to the poll panel and the new party on the plea by the Aam Aadmi Party after the Election Commission rejected Keriwal’s party’s objection over the registration of the new party.

The plea filed through advocate Anupam Shrivastava sought to deregister the party as the acronym of both parties would confuse the voters.

According to the plea, the petitioner brought to the notice of the Election Commission that the attempt to register a party with the name “Aap Ki Apni Party” (AAP) is a sinister design to misappropriate the popular acronym by creating doubt and confusion in the minds of voters.

However, the same was rejected on the grounds of ‘nonmaintainability’.

The Aam Aadmi Party claimed that while rejecting the objections, the ECI also jettisoned its interest by not taking into consideration its official order wherein it was held that the name of a new political party should not be similar to the names of existing parties.

The matter would be now heard on November 13.