Kapil Mishra pushed to back row, says EVM tampering attempt to divert attention

Mishra took on the party for claiming that he was removed from the seven-member Cabinet for “failing” to address concerns related to water supply in the city. “They (AAP) should first decide whether they were defeated due to EVMs or water mismanagement by me as being claimed now,” he said.

Once a prominent speaker for the Aam Aadmi Party government, sacked minister Kapil Mishra chose to remain quiet throughout Tuesday’s assembly session.

AAP MLA Kapil Mishra after addressing a press conference against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyender Jain. (PTI)

As a minister, he used to occupy the front benches of the House, but on Tuesday he found himself relegated to the back row that too without any company.

Most MLAs either refused to acknowledged his presence or simply smiled from a distance, clearly avoiding a conversation with him.

The seating arrangement was completely different from the previous sessions as other suspended MLAs such as Jitender Singh Tomar and Amanatullah Khan too were designated seats far away from each other.

A day after he was suspended from the primary membership of the party, Mishra ridiculed AAP’s demonstration of “live EVM rigging”, saying it was time for it to acknowledge that people have rejected Arvind Kejriwal.

“It is a strategy to divert people’s attention from what’s happening within the party. But one thing is clear, people don’t want to vote for Arvind Kejriwal anymore. The party knows it and that is why they just want to hide this fact,” Mishra told HT after the Assembly session concluded.

What was anticipated to be fierce face-off with Kejriwal and Mishra coming face-to-face for the first time since Mishra claimed of seeing Jain hand over Rs 2 crore to Kejriwal, turned out to be a damp squib.

Neither Bharadwaj nor the chief minister who was present during the entire debate or any other AAP member spoke on the bribery charges.

Mishra took on the party for claiming that he was removed from the seven-member Cabinet for “failing” to address concerns related to water supply in the city. “They (AAP) should first decide whether they were defeated due to EVMs or water mismanagement by me as being claimed now,” he said.

“When they are defeated, they question the democracy. We (AAP) had won 67 seats through the same EVMs and after being defeated, they are questioning the credibility of EVMs,” he said.

They brought a “prototype machine and tampered it” and are now claiming that elections can be “rigged”, Mishra maintained.