No plan yet to join anti-bjp alliance, hints Kejriwal
Kejriwal said unnerved by his party’s rapid strides in Gujarat, BJP was going all out to ‘crush’ AAP by implicating its MLAS in ‘false cases’ of corruption
At the first national convention of elected representatives of AAP held here, party national convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal set the pitch for the 2024 general elections, making the Gujarat assembly polls later this year the focus of his outreach and indicating that the party had no plans yet to join an opposition alliance to counter BJP.
Instead, Kejriwal asked party members to focus on building an “alliance of 130 crore citizens of India” through AAP’S “Make India No. 1” campaign.
He claimed that AAP’S growing popularity in Gujarat, had ratled the BJP.
Kejriwal said the BJP was going all out to “crush” AAP by implicating its legislators in “false cases” of corruption.
Training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP, Kejriwal defended AAP’S arguments in favour of “freebies.”
Dubbing Kejriwal a “megalomaniac” who considers himself God ater winning assembly polls in two states, BJP took a swipe at him saying it was a mater of “surprise” that the AAP leader did not say US President Joe Biden was also afraid of him.
Kejriwal said unnerved by his party’s rapid strides in Gujarat, BJP was going all out to “crush” AAP by implicating its MLAS in “false cases” of corruption.
Training his guns on PM Modi and BJP, Kejriwal defended AAP’S arguments in favour of “freebies. ”
He said BJP’S atempts to weaken AAP through “Operation Lotus” by trying to break away its MLAS in Delhi and Punjab had failed.
He was addressing AAP’S first national convention of elected representatives, where delegates adopted a resolution commiting themselves to the “Make India No 1” vision.
“This is not the mission of any party. People from all parties, including BJP and Congress should come together. India can lead the world, but 130 crore Indians will have to take over the reins together,” the resolution said.
The convention adopted a resolution against what it said were BJP’S atempts to destabilise its elected governments.
Kejriwal on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to “crush” the Aam Aadmi Party in the name of fighting corruption, saying that it feared a defeat in the upcoming elections in Gujarat.
The BJP said the AAP was resorting to “old drama” it unleashes before every election that “others are ratled as the AAP is winning.”
Addressing the first national conclave of the AAP’S elected representatives, Kejriwal said the Modi government has been trying to frame his party’s ministers and leaders in false corruption cases as the BJP is “not able to digest the growing popularity of the AAP in Gujarat.”
Kejriwal asked all party MLAS to be ready to go to jail for 3-4 months because the “central government was trying hard to crush the AAP.”
“We came to power in Delhi three times. We formed a government in Punjab and we will form a government in Gujarat soon. These people want to stop us anyhow and they have planned to crush the AAP by all means possible.
“They are hurling false allegations. 169 cases have been filed against our MLAS in Delhi. Not even a single MLA has been convicted,” he said.
“In fact, they have been acquited in 135 cases and only 34 cases are pending. This shows that their (BJP’S) fight is not against corruption but they are conspiring to crush the AAP.
Even we would have conceded that we were corrupt if 15-20 of our MLAS were convicted, but not even a single conviction has taken place,” the Delhi chief minister said, opening the daylong conclave. At the conclave at IGI Stadium, the first since the AAP was formed on Nov.26, 2012, 1,446 elected representatives — MLAS and MPS from Delhi, Punjab and Goa, AAP’S councillors, zila panchayat members, mayors, block pramukhs, sarpanchs and pradhans — from across 20 states and UTS participated.
Kejriwal said the MLAS who refused to join the BJP were also being targeted.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh later moved a resolution against “Operation Lotus,” a term coined by AAP to describe alleged attempts by the BJP to poach its MLAS to topple the AAP government.