BJP wants to crush AAP ahead of polls: Kejriwal | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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BJP wants to crush AAP ahead of polls: Kejriwal

ByAlok KN Mishra, New Delhi
Sep 18, 2022 11:32 PM IST

The BJP said the AAP was resorting to “old drama” it unleashes before every election that “others are rattled as the AAP is winning”

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to “crush” the Aam Aadmi Party in the name of fighting corruption, saying that it feared a defeat in the upcoming elections in Gujarat.

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The BJP said the AAP was resorting to “old drama” it unleashes before every election that “others are rattled as the AAP is winning”.

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Addressing the first national conclave of the AAP’s elected representatives, Kejriwal said the Modi government has been trying to frame his party’s ministers and leaders in false corruption cases as the BJP is “not able to digest the growing popularity of the AAP in Gujarat”.

Kejriwal asked all party MLAs to be ready to go to jail for 3-4 months because the “central government was trying hard to crush the AAP”.

“We came to power in Delhi three times. We formed a government in Punjab and we will form a government in Gujarat soon. These people want to stop us anyhow and they have planned to crush the AAP by all means possible. They are hurling false allegations. 169 cases have been filed against our MLAs in Delhi. Not even a single MLA has been convicted,” he said.

“In fact, they have been acquitted in 135 cases and only 34 cases are pending. This shows that their (BJP’s) fight is not against corruption but they are conspiring to crush the AAP. Even we would have conceded that we were corrupt if 15-20 of our MLAs were convicted, but not even a single conviction has taken place,” the Delhi chief minister said, opening the day-long conclave.

At the conclave at IGI Stadium, the first since the AAP was formed on November 26, 2012, 1,446 elected representatives — MLAs and MPs from Delhi, Punjab and Goa, AAP’s councillors, zila panchayat members, mayors, block pramukhs, sarpanchs and pradhans — from across 20 states and UTs participated. Kejriwal said the MLAs who refused to join the BJP were also being targeted.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh later moved a resolution against “Operation Lotus”, a term coined by AAP to describe alleged attempts by the BJP to poach its MLAs to topple the AAP government. The elected representatives of the AAP resolved to transform India, fight against the “BJP’s traps” and unanimously passed the resolution against “Operation Lotus” and another one to “make India No. 1”.

The BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra said Kejriwal was a staunchly dishonest political leader. “India will not become No. 1 by doing liquor scams. Harassment of women in ration cards will not make India No. 1. Scam in buying DTC bus and Delhi health minister doing scam will not make India No. 1,” Patra said.

Referring to the arrest of AAP MLA and Waqf Board chairperson Amanatullah Khan and the arrest of his aide Hamid Ali from whose residence a pistol, some ammunition and 12 lakh were recovered, Kejriwal said at the conclave that Ali’s arrest was designed to frame Khan at whose house nothing was found during the searches.

“They will put everyone in jail. Now, raids will be conducted against Kailash Gahlot. Be prepared to go to jail for 3-4 months. Jail is not a bad place, I have been to jail for 15 days. If everyone has that power (to tolerate jail for 4 months), they cannot harm us. Now they have planned to conduct raids against any Tom, Dick and Harry and if cash is recovered from them, they will be branded as aides of Manish Sisodia and will arrest him,” he said, saying that Sisodia was “very honest”.

The AAP national convener said his deputy, Sisodia, who has been booked in a case over an alleged scam linked to Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy, could be arrested in a similar manner.

The national convention was being held amid the AAP’s plans to go national, riding on the wave of its electoral performance in Punjab, where the party stormed to power by defeating several veteran politicians. At the event, the AAP discussed its expansion across the country. “Issues raised by the public representatives will also be heard so that concrete initiatives can be taken to strengthen the organisation in that state,” said an AAP leader, asking not to be named.

The AAP chief said that minister Satyendar Jain, who has been in jail for the last three months in an alleged money laundering case, was instrumental in launching the electricity subsidy scheme, opening mohalla clinics and making hospitals better. He said that prosecutors were unable to produce evidence against Jain in court.

Opening the convention, Kejriwal compared AAP MLAs with freedom fighters. “They rejected 25 crore offer (to join the BJP) and they are not afraid of ED or CBI,” said Kejriwal.

Indirectly hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kejriwal said: “They have bought 285 MLAs in the country so far. They have paid money in tunes of 25-50 crore to each one of them. They have at least spent 7,000-8,000 on horse trading. From where did they get this money? And then they accuse us of corruption? You are looting the people to openly trade MLAs and then you have the audacity to say it atop the Red Fort that you are fighting corruption. This is the most corrupt government in the history of Independent India.”

Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson Patra said: “Whenever there is an election, he says everyone is intimidated by AAP, and every survey is showing the party winning elections. In Himachal, he had the same remark, and now the whole party has disintegrated. In Uttarakhand, their president has also left. I am surprised that he has not said Joe Biden fears him yet,” he said.

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