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‘Op Lotus fails in Delhi’: Arvind Kejriwal after Sisodia's ‘BJP offer’ claim
Delhi excise policy: The CBI is probing alleged discrepancies in the policy.
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP continue to be at loggerheads with each side trying to hit back harder amid a spate of allegations and counter-allegations over the CBI probe into Delhi excise policy. Even as the BJP has dismissed Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s claims of getting “an offer to split '' his party, Sisodia on Monday afternoon - in Gujarat for a campaign - said the party wanted him to be its chief ministerial face in the national capital. Stressing that he did not enter politics for posts, “but to bring about a change”, Sisodia said he refused the offer, adding that he was also told probes by the CBI and the ED would be dropped against him.
In a dig at the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal - in response to Sisodia’s claims - tweeted: “Operation Lotus has failed in Delhi”. Lotus is the party symbol of the BJP, and the term - Operation Lotus - has been used by the opposition parties for accusing the BJP of attempts to topple the elected governments.
In a bombshell tweet on Monday morning, Sisodia had written, “I have got the BJP’s message - split AAP and join BJP, will get all CBI ED cases closed. My reply to BJP - I am a Rajput, a descendant of Maharana Pratap. I will cut off my head but will not bow down in front of the corrupt-conspirators. All the cases against me are false. Do whatever you want to do.” Hours later, the BJP's national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia told a press conference that his party has exposed the corruption and “hardcore” dishonesty of AAP in a rebuttal to the claims.
By afternoon, Kejriwal - along with Sisodia- reached the BJP-ruled Gujarat where he addressed a townhall and said that the party had failed the state in its 27 years of rule. After praising the New York Times coverage last week, he said that Sisodia deserves a Bharat Ratna for all the work he has done for Delhi's educational development.
He also shared Sisodia’s bombshell tweet, and further intensified attack on the BJP. "It means CBI ED raid has nothing to do with liquor policy and corruption? These raids were done only to topple the "AAP" government in Delhi? Like they have done in other states," he tweeted in Hindi.
The CBI is investigating alleged discrepancies in the excise policy that was cleared by the AAP government last year.
