India, Jan. 31 -- High drama unfolded at Kapurthala House, a Punjab government property where the state's chief minister stays during his visits to Delhi, on Thursday evening when an Election Commission of India's flying surveillance team (FST) arrived to conduct a search following a complaint of "money distribution" filed on poll body's cVIGIL platform.

The operation, carried out less than a week before polling in Delhi, triggered a fierce war of words between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann alleged that the raid was politically motivated, while the AAP slammed the move as "BJP's hooliganism," accusing ECI of ignoring "blatant violations by the BJP" while subjecting Punjab's chief...