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‘AAP’s model is…’: Anurag Thakur ups BJP offensive against Sisodia, Kejriwal
Union minister Anurag Thakur’s attack comes three days after Sisodia’s house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the case on now-withdrawn Delhi’s excise policy
NEW DELHI: Union minister Anurag Thakur on Monday attacked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over its claim that Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was offered the chief minister’s position by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Kejriwal’s model number one is turning mohalla clinics into mohalla thekas (liquor stores), second model is to permit opening of liquor stores in exchange for money. Instead of Swaraj, Kejriwal’s model is ‘sharab (liquor) raj’,” Thakur said.
Thakur said the kingpin of the liquor case is Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who has failed to respond in the last few days. “He (Kejriwal) could be seen on TV daily, wasting crores of public money. However, he evades responsibility and blames others when his party gets involved in corruption,” he added.
Thakur’s attack comes three days after Sisodia’s house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the case on now-withdrawn Delhi’s excise policy.
Manish Sisodia on Monday claimed that he has received a “BJP message” offering to withdraw all the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases if he broke the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and crossed over to the BJP.
“I have received a BJP message-break AAP and cross over to BJP and all the CBI-ED cases will be withdrawn. My response to BJP is that I am a descendant of Maharana Pratap, I am Rajput. I will never bow before corrupt conspirators. All the cases against me are fake. they can do whatever they want to do,” Sisodia tweeted.
Thakur said that Kejriwal and his ministers are the “biggest liars”.
The BJP and the AAP have been attacking each other with a flurry of press conferences and tweets after CBI on Friday raided 31 locations including Sisodia’s residence in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s Excise Policy 2021-22.
The 15-hour-long searches at Sisodia’s home, the residence of former excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna and 29 other places took place after registering a first information report (FIR) for alleged corruption and bribery in the formulation and execution of the Delhi excise policy in November last year.
Kejriwal led the AAP’s pushback over the case on Friday, insisting that CBI raids were “attempts on orders from above to create obstacles in the work of the AAP government”.
“This is not the first raid. In the last seven years, several raids have been conducted against Manish Sisodia, and several fake cases were lodged. Raids have been conducted against me, Satyendar Jain, Kailash Gahlot and many of our leaders. Nothing was found in those raids. Nothing will be found in these raids as well. CBI is doing its work. We should not panic. Obstacles will not stop us. They (CBI) have orders from above to trouble us and create obstacles. We have to make sure that obstacles do not stop our work,” Kejriwal said on Friday.
