Asserting that the Aam Aadmi Party had successfully foiled the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bid to topple the Delhi government, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today claimed that the saffron party had set aside Rs 800 crore for the purpose and questioned the source of such money.
“They (BJP) offered Rs 20 crore each to our MLAs. They have kept Rs 800 crore for toppling the Delhi government. But the citizens of the country want to know about the source of this money. Is it from GST or the PM CARES Fund? Have some of their friends given them this money?” Kejriwal said, claiming that none of his party’s legislators yielded under pressure from the BJP.
The AAP has launched a no-holds-barred offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP ever since the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted searches at Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the alleged excise policy scam.
On Tuesday, Sisodia claimed that a day after the raids, he was contacted by two “uninvited guests” at the BJP’s behest who offered to anoint him as the party’s chief ministerial candidate and drop the cases against him if he could break away from the AAP along with some other MLAs.
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On Wednesday, the AAP doubled down on the allegations and claimed that four of its party MLAs were approached by the BJP and offered Rs 20 crore each if they defect.
“I am extremely happy that no MLA has yielded under pressure. They want to poach 40 MLAs but I want to tell the people of Delhi that they have voted for a hardcore honest government. Neither I nor my MLAs and ministers will betray the country and be sold out,” Kejriwal said.
“The next day after the raids, they sent a message to Sisodia that you leave Kejriwal, get some MLAs, and come to us. We will topple the Delhi government and close the CBI, ED cases against you. I think I would have done some good deeds in my past life that I have got a companion like Sisodia. They were offering him the chief minister’s post but he refused. He rejected their offer,” he added.
Earlier in the day, AAP had declared that it had foiled BJP’s attempts to topple the government after a majority of the MLAs marked their presence at a meeting called by the Delhi CM at his residence. Reports of several MLAs “missing” ahead of the meeting had caused some commotion.
Countering the BJP’s allegations of “trying to deflect the focus” from corruption in the implementation of the 2021-22 Excise Policy, Kejriwal dismissed the allegations are “rubbish”.
“Sometimes they say there is a scam of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, which is not even the budget of the Delhi government. Someone was saying there is a scam of Rs 8,000 crore. But what is this scam? Two leaders did a media briefing and said there has been a scam of Rs 1,100 crore. The LG’s report said there is a scam of Rs 144 crore. The CBI FIR says there is a scam of Rs 1 crore. What is this scam? Is there anything?” Kejriwal said.
The AAP national convener further said that AAP MLAs prayed at Rajghat for peace to prevail in the country where the situation currently revolves around “attempts to topple state governments”.
