Arvind Kejriwal wins trust vote, dares BJP to seek votes ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Feb 17, 2024: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal won the trust vote in the Delhi Assembly on Saturday and dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek votes for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Kejriwal also said his party, the Aam Aadmi Party, was the biggest challenger to the BJP and that is why it is under attack from all sides.

 

"Go seek votes in the coming polls by saying you want to end the Delhi Vidhan Sabha, if they end the Vidhan Sabha, I will keep working for you (Delhi voters)," Kejriwal said during a discussion on the motion of confidence he moved in the Budget session of the assembly.

Further, 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.

"If the BJP is afraid about its future, then it is only because of the AAP. That’s why they want to break the AAP. If the BJP doesn’t lose the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, then the AAP will surely make the country free of the BJP by 2029. The AAP was formed just 12 years ago. There are nearly 1,350 parties in the country. The AAP applied for its registration on November 26, 2012, it has now become the third-largest party in the country after the BJP and Congress," Kejriwal said.

The Delhi Chief Minister, who is also the AAP convenor, 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.

"On contacting our MLAs, we found out that they tried to poach seven of our legislators. These MLAs today said in the House that they were approached (by the BJP). As Rajesh Gupta said, they (BJP) want us to show proof. How can we show proof? A person doesn’t carry a tape recorder all the time. They feel that the party (AAP) will collapse once Arvind Kejriwal is arrested. They can arrest Kejriwal but how will they arrest Kejriwal’s thinking?," he said.

He also asserted that no AAP MLA had defected. Two MLAs are in jail, some are unwell, and some others are out of station.

"The way they (BJP) have attacked the AAP and arrested our ministers, people across the country are aware of this. They think that people are fools, but they are not. Now discussions are being held in parks and people are asking ’Does PM Modi want to crush Arvind Kejriwal’? Even children are asking this question because they have arrested so many of our ministers. Our number 2, number 3, and number 4 are in jail, and talks are being held that soon number 1 will be arrested. This is happening because AAP is BJP’s biggest challenger in the entire nation," the Chief Minister said.

Kejriwal also 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 medicine for the poor people in our hospitals. Did Lord Ram ask to stop medicine for the poor people?" he said.

Kejriwal said he has faced attacks in the past, been slapped, got ink thrown on him, and now they want to arrest him.

On Friday, Kejriwal moved a motion of confidence in the Assembly.

This is the third motion of confidence by the Kejriwal government in the last three years. It comes amid the AAP’s claims that the BJP wanted to break the party by offering money to its MLAs and toppling its government in Delhi.

The previous confidence motions came in August 2022 and March 2023, amid AAP allegations that the BJP was carrying out "Operation Lotus" to poach its MLA.

The AAP has an overwhelming majority in the Delhi Assembly, with 62 MLAs in the 70-member House.

The Opposition BJP has eight MLAs, of whom seven are currently suspended.

Courtesy: India Today