AAP being attacked as it is BJP’s biggest challenger, says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal; House passes confidence motion
New Delhi, February 17
The AAP is the biggest challenger to the BJP and that is why it is under attack from all sides, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday during a discussion on the motion of confidence he moved in the Budget session of the assembly.
Speaking on the motion of confidence, Kejriwal asserted that even if the BJP wins this year’s Lok Sabha polls, the AAP will “liberate” the country from the saffron party in the 2029 elections.
The Delhi chief minister, who is also the AAP convener, said his government has a majority in the House but it needed to bring the motion of confidence because the BJP was trying to poach party MLAs and topple his government.
The House later passed the motion of confidence through a voice vote, with 54 of the AAP’s 62 MLAs present during the voting.
Kejriwal also asserted that no AAP MLA had defected. Two MLAs are in jail, some are unwell and some others are out of station, he said.
He said several MLAs explained how they were contacted and offered money to switch sides, allegedly by “BJP people”.
The chief minister asserted that the BJP thought it could finish the AAP by arresting him. “You may arrest me but how will you finish Kejriwal’s thoughts?” he asked.
The Delhi chief minister alleged that the BJP, through control over the Services department and the bureaucracy, was obstructing the work of his government.
“They claim to be Ram bhakt but they stopped medicines for the poor people in our hospitals. Did Lord Ram ask for stopping medicines for the poor people?” he said.
Keriwal said he has faced attacks in the past, been slapped, got ink thrown on him and now they want to arrest him.
Earlier, a Delhi court granted exemption to Kejriwal from personal appearance for the day in connection with a complaint filed by the ED against him over non-compliance with its summonses in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped excise policy.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra granted relief to Kejriwal after the AAP leader appeared before the court via videoconferencing and urged for exemption from physical appearance for the day.
Kejriwal told the court that he was unable to appear before it due to the ongoing Budget session of the Delhi Assembly.
Appearing for Kejriwal, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta told the court that the Delhi chief minister will appear before it in person on the next date of hearing. The court has adjourned the matter to March 16.
In its complaint, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that the Delhi chief minister intentionally did not want to obey the summonses and kept on giving “lame excuses”.
If a high-ranking public functionary like him disobeyed the law, it would “set a wrong example for the common man i.e. the “Aam Aadmi”, the agency said.
The ED on February 3 filed a fresh complaint case against Kejriwal for non-compliance of its summonses.
The AAP convenor had earlier written to the ED, describing the summonses issued to him as “illegal and politically motivated”. He had alleged that the summonses were aimed at preventing him from campaigning in elections.
