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AAP govt wins vote of confidence in Delhi assembly
AAP won confidence motion in Delhi Assembly with a majority. The motion passed with a voice vote, with 54 of AAP’s 62 MLAs present during the voting.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday won a confidence motion moved by Delhi chief minister and the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who said the vote was meant to show the people that the House, where his party has an overwhelming majority, has confidence in the council of ministers, as he alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to topple his government.
The motion was passed with a voice vote, with 54 of AAP’s 62 MLAs present during the voting. AAP has a majority in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. Kejriwal said no AAP MLA defected. Two AAP MLAs — Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain — are currently in jail and the other six were not in attendance due to personal reasons.
Leader of opposition in the assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was the only Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA present in the assembly with the party’s other seven MLAs having been suspended on Friday from the House for interrupting the Lieutenant Governor’s (L-G) address. Bidhuri’s was the only vote against the motion.
Kejriwal moved the trust vote in the House on Friday during the Budget session of the Assembly, alleging that the BJP was trying to poach AAP MLAs to topple his government. He repeated this claim on Saturday during the discussion on the motion of confidence. He claimed BJP’s attacks on the AAP were borne out of fear and its inability to accept defeat.
“In 12 years, the AAP has emerged as the third-largest party in the country... In such a short time we have a full majority government in two states. Never in the history of Punjab has a party won 92 seats and never before in the history of Delhi has a party won 67. In future, they (BJP) only fear the AAP,” Kejriwal said.
“In 2015 and even in 2019, BJP came to Centre with a huge majority, but was reduced to 3 and 8 seats in Delhi Assembly, the BJP is unable to digest this defeat,” he added.
The AAP chief alleged there were rumours that the Delhi Assembly will be dissolved once Lok Sabha elections — expected to be held in the summer — end, accusing the BJP-ruled central government of trying to end the national capital’s partial statehood.
“Nowadays, these people have spread a big rumour that once these Lok Sabha elections are over, they [BJP-ruled Union government] will change the Constitution and make Delhi a full Union Territory [and] abolish the Legislative Assembly,” he said.
“Even if the BJP wins this year’s Lok Sabha polls, the AAP will liberate the country from the BJP in the 2029 elections,” he added.
The CM elaborated on the work undertaken by the AAP-led governments in Delhi and Punjab, including the provision of free electricity, mohalla clinics, government-run schools, water supply, and expansion of sewer lines.
The AAP leader was due to appear in court on Saturday over summons by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning, which Kejriwal has ignored till now. Kejriwal alleged that the BJP was trying to get him arrested and accused the party of misusing its power to conduct raids, arrest AAP ministers, constitute probes against his party, and control and interrupt the Delhi government’s work.
“The BJP controls officers and staff in Delhi… officers are being called and threatened that they will be suspended if they work for the AAP government. They brought an ordinance to nullify the Supreme Court order which said AAP will control services. The finance department is not giving payment to the Delhi Jal Board. Sewer lines are overflowing and people are facing a water crisis,” he said.
“They (BJP) want to arrest Kejriwal and finish the AAP… they have arrested so many of our leaders. But people are watching everything. Discussions are happening in parks… people are asking whether (PM Narendra) Modi wants to crush Kejriwal. Such blatant attacks were never witnessed in the past. This is happening because AAP is the biggest challenger to the BJP,” he added.
His comments came as the Rouse Avenue court, earlier in the day, granted him an exemption from personally appearing in court over the ED summons till March 16.
Kejriwal appeared before the court virtually, submitting that he could not physically appear due to the ongoing Budget session and the confidence motion in the House.
Kejriwal has skipped six summonses — on February 19, February 2, January 18 and January 3 this year, and December 22 and November 2 last year — in connection with ED’s probe into alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
AAP MLAs, who participated in the discussion on Saturday, also said that the BJP had made multiple attempts to poach the party’s leaders in the past. They said that they were with Kejriwal and will continue to remain with him, with some projecting him as the future prime minister.
AAP MLA Akhilesh Pati Tripathi said, “The BJP tried to poach AAP MLAs in 2015, 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023 but AAP leaders did not leave the party. BJP is doing this because it is unable to compete Arvind Kejriwal in governance, and now they want to topple the AAP government. After they failed to break AAP, they are now defaming us in the name of baseless scams.”
The BJP hit back.
Bidhuri on Saturday said the confidence motion was not required because the AAP already has a majority in the Assembly and claimed that Kejriwal moved the motion to divert public attention from the scams of his government.
“There was no need to move the confidence motion. CM Arvind Kejriwal enjoys a majority in the House but has lost confidence in the people of Delhi. The government is facing various corruption charges and has failed on all fronts. It is being done to divert the attention of the people from the issues of corruption and its failure the government has brought this motion,” said Bidhuri.
On the CM’s allegations of poaching of MLAs, he said, “We requested the Delhi Police commissioner to conduct a probe into the allegations of poaching of AAP MLAs levelled by CM and minister Atishi against the BJP and take strict action if there is any truth in the allegations, but they are not cooperating with the investigation.”
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said corruption and misgovernance have become the identity of the AAP government during its nine years in power.
“In the nine years, we have not seen a revolution of transparency, but a series of scandals that have eroded trust and shattered the illusion of clean governance. From financial mismanagement to nepotism, AAP’s tenure has been marred by nine deadly scams with no accountability. Now is the time for the people of Delhi to demand accountability and usher in a new era of transparency and integrity in governance, free from the taint of AAP mismanagement and corruption,” Sachdeva said in a statement.
