A day after he was released on interim bail from Tihar Jail, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal in a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of his scheduled poll campaign on Saturday said, “If PM Modi wins elections, he will put all the opposition leaders behind bars and end democracy.”
![Indian PM and BJP leader Narendra Modi (left), AAP supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Photo courtesy: Narendra Modi/Instagram and Arvind Kejriwal/Instagram](https://wp-rewamp.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Modi-Kejriwal-jpg.webp)
“All opposition leaders including Mamata, Stalin, Uddhav will be in jail if BJP wins LS polls, UP CM will also be changed,” said Kejriwal.
“PM has left no stone unturned to crush our party, sent four top AAP leaders to jail in one year. If he wants to learn about fighting corruption, he should learn from Arvind Kejriwal; we sent the corrupt to jail,” the Delhi leader stated further.
“No other party has been harassed to this extent in 75 years. The Prime Minister is saying that he is fighting corruption, but all the thieves are in his party,” he claimed.
The Delhi CM said that PM Modi would be better advised to take lessons from him to fight corruption. “I want to say to PM Modi that If you want to fight corruption then learn from Kejriwal… After the formation of the government in Delhi, I dismissed one of my ministers and sent him to jail. In Punjab, we sent a minister to jail,” he said.
Claiming that every opposition leader will be arrested under the Mission, ‘One Nation, One Leader’, Kejriwal said, “You include all the thieves in your party and send Kejriwal to jail, this is not a fight against corruption… By arresting Kejriwal, they have given the message that if Kejriwal is arrested then they will arrest anyone. The name of this mission is ‘One Nation One Leader’,” Kejriwal added.
PM Modi is making way for Amit Shah: Kejriwal
The AAP national convenor claimed that PM Modi is making way for Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging they will leave Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath out in the cold after the general elections.
“These people ask the INDIA alliance who will be their Prime Minister. I ask BJP who will be your Prime Minister? PM Modi is turning 75, on 17th September. He made a rule that leaders in the party would retire after 75 years… LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan, and Yashwant Sinha were retired and now PM Modi is going to retire on 17th September,” Kejriwal said.
“If their government is formed, they will first dispose of Yogi Adityanath and then make Amit Shah the Prime Minister of the country. PM Modi is asking for votes for Amit Shah. Will Amit Shah fulfil Modi’s guarantee?” He asked. He also said that the BJP is brushing aside the political career of its veteran leaders like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
“Politics of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, former BJP Chief Ministers, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, ML Khattar, and Raman Singh have been finished. The next is Yogi Adityanath. If they win this election, they will change the CM of Uttar Pradesh within 2 months,” the AAP national convenor said.
Delhi BJP calls Kejriwal the uncrowned king of corruption
Labelling Arvind Kejriwal as “Bhrastachar ka betaaj badshah” (The uncrowned king of corruption), the official X handle of Delhi BJP shared the poster with the caption: “Bhrastachari jail ke andar ho ya bahar, Bhrastachari Bhrastachari hota hai! (Whether a corrupt person is in jail or out, a corrupt person remains corrupt!)”
The BJP believes that, while out on bail, Kejriwal will attempt to influence the election campaign according to his style. Therefore, the party aims to confront AAP and Kejriwal on the issue of corruption.
Moreover, BJP intends to highlight the issue of ‘Khalistani funding’ to AAP. Alongside Delhi, BJP will also seek to send a political message to Punjab regarding corruption and national security concerns related to AAP and Kejriwal.
Kejriwal spent over 50 days in Tihar Jail after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy case on March 21, days after the election schedule for the general elections was announced.
The bail is applicable till June 1 and Kejriwal has to surrender to authorities on June 2. The Delhi CM can participate in the poll campaigning but cannot attend his office as Chief Minister.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)