New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday made a big statement saying that his party AAP’s vote share has gone up ever since the Narendra Modi-led BJP government directed the CBI to conduct raids at the residence of his deputy Manish Sisodia in a connection with a “fake” case. “AAP’s vote share up by 4% in Gujarat ever since CBI raid on Manish Sisodia, it will increase to 6% when he’s arrested.”
.@msisodia False FIR was lodged on G. We are in public life. We should be ready to investigate. They did not threaten that I will do the defamation case.
CBI investigated their house-locker, they did not find anything. In a way, Modi ji has given him a certificate of honesty.
– CM @ArvindKejriwal pic.twitter.com/XnOFvtvPHg— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) September 1, 2022
The AAP chief alleged that a “fake” case has been filed against Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. He added that Sisodia welcomed the CBI probe against him in the Delhi Excuse policy case but he did not threaten with a defamation case.
The Delhi chief minister said that the CBI raided Manish Sisodia’s residence, went to his village and searched his bank locker, but the agency found nothing. “The CBI says it did not find anything against Sisodia but it is under pressure to arrest him,” the Delhi CM alleged.
The Delhi chief minister made these remarks while speaking in the Legislative Assembly during which he attacked the ruling BJP saying, “Am I doing anything wrong if I want to build schools & hospitals? They (BJP) are spending Rs 20 – Rs 50 crore to buy our MLAs.”
“We brought a confidence motion (in the Delhi assembly) today to prove that Operation Lotus will fail. None of our MLAs has switched sides,” Kejriwal said, referring to the term often used by the opposition to mean sabotage by the BJP, whose election symbol has the lotus.
Explaining the absence of 3 AAP MLAs, Kejriwal said, “Fifty-nine out of 62 AAP MLAs were present for the vote of confidence. Out of the three absent, two are abroad and the third, Satyendar Jain, is in jail,” he added.
In total, 58 AAP MLAs voted in favour of the confidence vote; one was the Speaker herself. After levelling serious allegations of “poaching of AAP MLAs” against the BJP, Kejriwal easily won the trust vote in the assembly.
It may be noted that the BJP and AAP are at loggerheads since the CBI raided Manish Sisodia’s residence in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy. The AAP later alleged that the BJP tried to poach its MLAs in a bid to break the party and offered crores of rupees to them for switching sides.
On Wednesday, seven BJP MPs of Delhi wrote to Lt. Governor V K Saxena seeking a probe into the allegations levelled by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia that AAP MLAs were offered Rs 20 crore from the saffron party to switch sides.
Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said, “We have taken the allegations of the Arvind Kejriwal gang seriously, and therefore we have written a letter to the L-G. We have demanded a forensic investigation into the allegations.
“The Arvind Kejriwal gang first says that this is a very good revenue model of liquor. When the investigation starts, they withdraw. When the CBI proceeds in the investigation, they again claim that the L-G is guilty. Then again they claim that offers were being made to lure Manish Sisodia.”
Also addressing the briefing, BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh said that the AAP government claimed to have the best education model in the world, but their children are not taking advantage of it.
“They also have the best health model in the world, but their families, MLAs, MPs do not take advantage of it,” he added. On his part, North-West BJP MP Hans Raj Hans said that “everyone knows that the truth is stable, neither spread nor be confined, but you can spread the lie as much as you want, but sometimes the lie is caught red-handed”.
He further said that the allegation of the Rs 20 crore offer was false.