Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 24: Amidst a slugfest between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has convened a day’s special session of the state Assembly on Friday to discuss, what he claimed, the BJP’s attempts to bring down his government.
Kejiwal, who is also the AAP national convener, on Wednesday said the BJP’s attempt to “topple” his government was a “serious issue.” The matter was discussed in the AAP’s political Affairs Committee on Wednesday evening held at Kejriwal’s residence in which the panel condemned the BJP’s alleged efforts to lure its MLAs.
Alleging that the “efforts to topple the AAP government has begun,” the party leaders claimed that four of its MLAs were offered money by the BJP to quit the party. AAP’s national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh claimed he would “expose” how the prime minister Narendra Modi-led government was using central agencies to bring down the government in the national capital.
“Efforts to break the MLAs of Delhi have begun,” he said, adding that the BJP tried a ‘Shinde’ on Manish Sisodia but the attempt failed. He claimed BJP members threaten AAP MLAs. “They say take our offer of ₹ 20 crore or face CBI cases like Sisodia,” he said.
Singh said Ajay Dutt, Sanjeev Jha, Somnath Bharati and Kuldeep – were offered ₹ 20 crore each if they join the BJP and ₹ 25 crore “if they bring other MLAs with them.” The four AAP MLAs were present at a press conference.
Senior leader Somnath Bharati, a former minister, said: “They said they know cases against Sisodia are fake, but the senior leaders have decided to bring down AAP… A BJP leader told me that no matter what, we will bring down the Delhi government,” he said. AAP has accused the BJP of instigating the CBI raids against deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia after international recognition for the party’s achievement in the education and healthcare sectors. The trigger, they said, was an article in the US daily New York Times.
The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case against Sisodia and others to probe the alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise policy after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR that has named Sisodia and 14 others.
The CBI had conducted raids in the 2021-22 excise policy case on August 19 and had covered the residence of Sisodia in Delhi, that of IAS officer and former Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna and 19 other locations across seven states and Union Territories. Sisodia holds multiple portfolios in the Delhi government including that of excise and education.
The ED will probe if there were alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy unveiled in November last year but scrapped last month.
Despite enjoying a huge majority having won 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, the AAP has claimed that the BJP was attempting to overthrow the Kejriwal government the way they toppled the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra. Manish Sisodia has claimed that he was approached by the BJP, who offered him the Chief Minister’s post. In case he quit the party, they promised that all cases against him will be withdrawn, he said. “Some MLAs have told me that they have been threatened, offered bribes to break the party. This is a very serious matter,” he claimed.
Reacting to the charges by the AAP, the BJP spokesman Shehzad Poonawalla said Kejriwal’s party keeps releasing “trailers” but the “film” never arrives. “They complain that their party is being broken apart, that they have audio clips on the alleged BJP offer but wouldn’t release it and will wait for the ‘right time’. They will keep doing this,” he said, calling it a smokescreen to deflect from corruption charges against Delhi ministers.