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'BJP has only one aim...': Kejriwal hits out after AAP's Gujarat leader detained
Arvind Kejriwal reacted after AAP's former Gujarat chief was arrested by Surat Police over a conteroversial remark agains state minister.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has 'only one aim... to finish (off) the Aam Aadmi Party', Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal declared Monday evening after the AAP's ex-Gujarat unit boss was arrested for contentious remarks against home minister Harsh Sanghvi and the ruling BJP's state chief, CR Patil. Kejriwal also claimed the BJP would not rest till it had jailed each member of his party, and that it was driven by fear of the AAP's rising popularity in the state.
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"BJP is so shocked by spectacular performance of AAP in Gujarat that it has now arrested our Gujarat leader, Gopal Italia. Now BJP has only one aim... how to finish (off) Aam Aadmi Party. These people will put everyone in jail one by one," Kejriwal tweeted.
Kejriwal's stinging rebuke was countered by the BJP's IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya, who slammed the Delhi chief minister's comments as a 'lie' and pointed to his summons by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the excise policy case.
"After the CBI inquiry, there is such a state of insanity that the man is seeing jail everywhere," Malviya declared.
On Sunday - after Kejriwal was questioned by the CBI - Malviya gloated: "... devastated look on Kejriwal’s face, apprehensive body language and feeble tone and tenor of speech after CBI questioning is a sure sign... sins of his (have) finally caught up… And he knows it."
The AAP made its debut in Gujarat last year after a strong showing in civic body polls in prime minister Narendra Modi's home state, then widely seen as a bastion for the ruling party.
The party from Delhi - which last year also secured its first government outside the national capital after a massive win over the Congress in Punjab - won five seats in Gujarat and, crucially, nearly 13 per cent of the vote share. This, in addition to wins in Punjab and Delhi, and over six per cent of the votes in Goa, mean Kejriwal's AAP is now a 'national' party.
Since then talk over a possible run at the 2024 Lok Sabha election has gathered pace, although it remains unlikely the AAP will generate enough support nationally for Kejriwal's ambition.
Earlier today Gopal Italia was detained by police in Gujarat's Surat and taken to the Crime Branch office in connection with allegedly derogatory statements about Sanghvi and Patil.
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Italia has since been given bail.
"Since offences... were bailable, Crime Branch let me go. AAP showed its strength in the last election in Gujarat, which is considered BJP's stronghold. That is why they are scared..."
The complaint was reportedly filed by a BJP worker, Pratap Chodwadia.
In the 2022 Gujarat election, Gopal Italia contested from xxx and (result?)
Incidentally, Surat is also where Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was found guilty of criminal defamation last month; he was convicted in the 2019 'Modi surname' case that led to him being disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP and ordered to evacuate his Delhi bungalow.
