In a show of strength amid speculations of his arrest following summons by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy case, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he will seek vote of confidence in the Assembly on Friday.
“I will bring the vote of confidence in Delhi Assembly today,” Kejriwal said in a post on X in Hindi. However, he did not specify the reason behind the move.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday sent its sixth summons in connection with the excise policy case to Kejriwal, and has been asked to be present at the central agency’s Delhi office on February 19. The AAP national convenor had called the earlier summons calling it “politically motivated”.
Earlier, the AAP government has alleged that the BJP had offered Rs 25 crore each to seven of its MLAs to quit the party and defect to the saffron party, while threatening to topple the elected government.
Meanwhile, seven BJP MLAs were suspended on Friday for the remainder of the Budget session of the Delhi Assembly for interrupting Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s address a day earlier.
The BJP MLAs are Mohan Singh Bisht, Ajay Mahawar, OP Sharma, Abhay Verma, Anil Vajpayi, Jitender Mahajan and Vijender Gupta.
Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel had also sent the matter of disruption to the Privileges Committee. Meanwhile, leader of the Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri walked out of the House in protest.
As soon as the L-G started reading out his speech and cited achievements of the AAP government in the field of education, BJP MLA Gupta interrupted him raising the issue of funding of 12 colleges of the Delhi University. The other BJP MLAs raked up issues of poor condition of hospitals, non-implementation of Ayushman Bharat scheme, shortage of water, and other issues.
The Budget session of the Delhi Assembly has been extended till the first week of March due to delay in budget finalisation.