Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 26: In the face of the apprehension that the BJP was trying to lure the Aam Aadmi Party members of the Delhi Assembly to topple the state government, the chief minister and the party supremo Arvind Kejriwal has decided to take a vote of confidence in the House as a show of solidarity in the party.
The one-day special session of the state Assembly on Friday was extended by one more day on Monday when the government will move the confidence motion. The AAP with 62 members in the House of 70 is very comfortably placed but Kejriwal has alleged that the BJP was trying to “buy out” 40 of its MLAs with offer of Rs 20 crores each to topple his government.
Addressing the special session of the House, Kejriwal compared the BJP to a serial killer while referring to the recent non-BJP governments toppled across the country and said he wanted to face a trust vote just to prove that the BJP had failed to lure a single AAP MLA. “I want to bring a confidence motion to show that the BJP has not been able to break away a single MLA,” Kejriwal said. On Thursday, Kejriwal had called a meeting of his MLAs in a show of strength at his home; 53 of 62 AAP MLAs showed up and the rest were accounted for.
AAP has called the session to discuss what it alleges is the BJP’s “Operation Lotus” in Delhi to topple the Kejriwal government and the investigations targeting its leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who has been charged over allegations of corruption in the Delhi liquor policy. Sisodia has alleged a BJP offer to drop the cases against him if he crosses over.
Kejriwal addressed the House in the absence of the eight-member opposition constituted by the BJP who were earlier marshalled out of the House after their refusal to pay heed to the Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla to deposit their phone if they had taken video of the house proceedings violation the rule of the House.
Ms. Birla asked Ajay Mahawar if he made a video recording of the Assembly proceedings by going against the laws. Mahawar and his party MLAs did not respond to Ms. Birla’s questions. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP MLAs got into a war of words over the issue. Following this, Ms. Birla said the BJP MLAs have wasted the time of the House and marshalled them out.
The BJP MLAs after coming out of the House stood near the Gandhi statue on the Assembly premises holding placards and raised slogans demanding Sisodia’s arrest and removal from Cabinet on the controversy over the liquor policy.
Kejriwal said the BJP toppled several governments in the country till date – Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya. “There is a serial killer in the city who is committing one murder after the other. People choose a government, they topple it,” he said.
The AAP boss said the BJP has so far bought 277 MLAs, adding the saffron camp used money collected through GST and hike in petrol, diesel prices to poach legislators.
“We’ve calculated that 277 MLAs have come to their party (BJP). Now if they would have given ₹20 crore to each MLA, then they’ve bought MLAs worth ₹5,500 crore. That’s why there’s inflation as they’re using all the money to buy MLAs at expense of common man,” Kejriwal later told reporters.
Speaking about the raid at Sisodia’s residence in connection with the now-defunct excise policy, Kejriwal said, “The raid continued for 14 hours, but not a single penny was found. No jewellery was found, no cash was found, no documents of any land or property were found and no incriminating document was found – nothing was found. It was a false raid.”
He added vested interests were now trying to bring down the Delhi government. The Delhi chief minister further said the BJP’s Gujarat fortress was under threat and crumbling, adding the latest ED and CBI raids on his party are due to the upcoming Assembly polls in the western state.
Stating that the BJP-led Centre wants to stop the good work being done in schools, Kejriwal said Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has now started a probe in Delhi government-run schools. He also hit out at the Centre for not allowing him to visit Singapore. “I was stopped from addressing mayors in Singapore about the good work of the Delhi government by those against the country’s progress,” the CM added.
