Arvind Kejriwal claims BJP started ‘Op Jhaadu’ to crush AAP

Following his personal assistant Bibhav Kumar’s arrest, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP has been arresting AAP leaders one by one.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set in motion a plan to “crush” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), arrest all its senior leaders, seize its accounts and evict the party from its office, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday, a day after Delhi Police arrested his longtime aide Bibhav Kumar following allegations that he assaulted party MP Swati Maliwal last week.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal(Hindustan Times)

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Kejriwal was addressing a gathering of AAP ministers, MLAs, MPs and senior party functionaries at the party’s Rouse Avenue headquarters, ahead of an attempted protest march to the BJP headquarters, which Delhi Police stopped, citing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

“The Prime Minister has decided to completely crush the AAP and the BJP has started ‘Operation Jhaadu’ so that the party does not grow and pose them a challenge. Through ‘Operation Jhaadu’, AAP’s big leaders will be arrested; they are being arrested, and our bank accounts will be seized after the elections. Our party office will also be vacated and we will be brought to the streets,” Kejriwal said during a 15-minute address.

Calling the protest a “political drama”,Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said: “Arvind Kejriwal is himself out on bail. Their (AAP) entire character is criminal.”

Maliwal’s allegations have rocked the AAP, days before all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and 13 seats in Punjab, the two provinces the party governs, go to the polls.

Delhi Police on Saturday took Kumar into custody from Kejriwal’s residence at Flagstaff Road, and he was later remanded to five days’ police custody.

His arrest came two days after Maliwal filed a police complaint against Kumar, alleging that he “slapped” her “at least seven to eight times” without any provocation and “brutally dragged” her while “kicking” her, forcing her to fall and hit her head on a table at the CM’s residence on May 13. Kumar has filed a counter complaint, accusing Maliwal of forcefully entering the CM’s premises and using abusive language.

Kejriwal said a string of AAP leaders have been arrested over the past two years “as part of the BJP’s efforts to break the AAP”.

“Yesterday (on Saturday), they arrested my PA (Bibhav). Now, they are saying they will arrest Raghav Chadha, Atishi, Kailash Gahlot... We have all gathered here and we want to tell the PM that we have all come together and we can all be arrested. We are not scared,” he said.

“In the coming days, the AAP will become a challenge for the BJP in many states and nationally, and that is why they want to destroy the party before it grows,” he said.

The Delhi CM went on to say that “false cases” were levied against AAP leaders and that no money has been recovered to prove graft. He said that ahead of the Punjab assembly elections in 2022, he was referred to as a “Khalistani terrorist”.

“In the next 10-15 days, they will bring out many more such fictional allegations. They can fall to any depth,” he added.

He appealed to AAP supporters to march peacefully towards the BJP office. “We will march calmly and peacefully. I will lead it... We will sit for half an hour wherever they stop us and they can arrest us. If they don’t arrest us, it will be their loss,” he said.

Following his speech, AAP leaders, led by Kejriwal, marched towards the BJP office on DDU Marg but were stopped several metres ahead of their destination. The ITO Metro station’s entry and exit were shut, even as Delhi Police and central security personnel were deployed in large numbers.

Traffic police also issued an advisory asking commuters to avoid the surrounding roads.

“In view of the protest by political party at DDU Marg, traffic will remain heavy at DDU Marg, IP Marg, Minto Road and Vikar Marg,” it said.

A senior police officer said, “Multiple layers of barricading was done from the AAP office towards the BJP headquarters. We made an announcement about Section 144 (of CrPC) being imposed in the area.”

“AAP leaders started their march from their office and were walking towards Rouse Avenue when they were stopped. They agreed to stop and sat on the ground,” added the officer, who asked not to be named.

During the march, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh raised slogans of “Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se, Gundagardi Ka Jawab Vote Se”, “Loktantra me Tanashahi Nahi Chalegi” and “Hitlershahi nahi chalegi”.

He was flanked by other ministers and senior party functionaries, including Delhi minister Atishi. “They are afraid of our work. They are unable to provide facilities like us and that is why they want to crush the AAP. We will continue to struggle,” she said.

At 1.05pm, Singh announced that workers should head back towards the party office. “As promised, we remained here for half an hour. Now we know that BJP cannot arrest us and have accepted defeat. They have run away,” he said.

Attacking the party further, Sachdeva said, “After Nirbhaya, Kejriwal used to scream that actions should be taken against accused but in this case, he is protecting him.”

“We all know that misbehaviour was done with Swati Maliwal. Sanjay Singh himself accepted this. They have also tried to destroy the proofs inside the CM residence just like a criminal. Swati Maliwal was beaten on instructions of chief minister. The accused’s phone has been cleared and CCTV footage is missing.This was not a protest. This was a drama.

Arvind Kejriwal claims ‘BJP started Operation Jhaadu’ to crush AAP | Latest updates

The then nascent AAP held several protests in the aftermath of the December gang-rape and murder that rocked the national capital. Maliwal was, at the time, at the helm of several of these protests.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Kejriwal did not resign even after being arrested. His party staff beat up the woman MP, why no action is being taken? What kind of model of Arvind Kejriwal is this? Is this dadagiri? The law will take its own course and everyday, their reality is coming to fore.”

In an apparent reference to the protest, Swati Maliwal posted on X in Hindi: “There was a time when we all came out on the streets to get justice for Nirbhaya. Today, after 12 years, we are out on the streets to save the accused who made the CCTV footage disappear and formatted the phone? I wish they had used this much force for Manish Sisodia ji. If he had been here, maybe this bad thing wouldn’t have happened to me!”

While many AAP workers were whisked away by the forces during the protest, police said no formal detentions were made.