NEW DELHI /.AHMEDABAD: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, speaking in Gujarat today, said the BJP is “trying to make Sonia Gandhi the Prime Minister after Narendra Modi”. The bizarre comment was his retort to the BJP’s claim that activist Medha Patkar is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s chief ministerial candidate.
The Delhi CM further alleged that the BJP was planning to bring Congress president Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister through the backdoor. He was responding to the BJP’s claim that the AAP wants to make activist Medha Patkar as Chief Minister in Gujarat.
“I have heard that after PM Modi, they (BJP) are planning to make Sonia Gandhi the Prime Minister. Please tell them Kejriwal has alleged that after Narendra Modi, the BJP wants to make Sonia Gandhi the Prime Minister. Do ask them this question that Sonia ji is being considered as a PM candidate for Modi ji’s successor. What do they have to say about that?” he said.The BJP, he said, is set to lose the Gujarat election and the Congress is “finished”.
A reporter asked him about the ruling BJP saying that AAP is trying to “give a backdoor entry to Medha Patkar in Gujarat politics”. Mr Kejriwal retorted: “I have heard that the BJP is making Sonia Gandhi its PM candidate after (Narendra) Modi ji. Dare to ask them my question. I understand that you will be afraid (of asking it). At the next press conference, tell them Kejriwal says you’re making Sonia Gandhi Modi ji’s successor and PM candidate and giving her a backdoor entry. What do you have to say?”
Medha Patkar, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election as an AAP candidate, has been accused by the BJP of harming the interests of Gujarati people by opposing the Narmada dam project. Mr Kejriwal said the BJP is deliberately trying to divert focus from its failures.
“BJP is getting defeated. They’ll raise the name of Medha Patkar or someone else. Tell them the public wants to know what they did in the last 27 years and what they plan to do in the next five years,” said the AAP chief. “I would like to ask the BJP why they object when I say I want to provide free electricity to people in Gujarat,” Mr Kejriwal said. AAP will contest all 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat, which votes early next year for a new government.
Mr Kejriwal was also asked about a Congress leader alleging that the AAP government of Punjab is spending crores in ads for Gujarat though it is on thebrink of bankruptcy and has no money even for salaries. “Who asked this question,” Mr Kejriwal asked the reporter. When he was told it was a Congress leader’s allegation, he shot back: “The Congress is finished. Stop taking their questions. People are clear about this. Nobody cares about their questions.”Before leaving for Delhi, Mr Kejriwal sent out a sharp message to the Gujarat police.
“I supported you on your grade pay and all other issues. We will definitely implement it after our government is formed. We are with you. There are only two months left. If BJP people tell you to do any wrong thing, then refuse, do not fear. BJP is going, AAP is coming,” Mr Kejriwal warned.
Kejriwal promised to provide “corruption-free” government to the people of Gujarat, if his party is voted to power in the state where the Assembly elections are due later this year.
He said that if his party comes to power in Gujarat, presently ruled by the BJP, it will ensure its chief minister, ministers as well as lawmakers from other parties and government officers do not indulge in corruption and are jailed if caught doing so.”Whosoever I met in Gujarat said there is corruption everywhere. One has to pay bribe to get a government work done. There is corruption at the lower level and at the top also there are scams. If one speaks against it, he is threatened…there is corruption and hooliganism everywhere in Gujarat,” Kejriwal claimed while talking to reporters in Ahmedabad.
He further said that the AAP government will make sure every penny collected from the public as tax goes to the service of the people of Gujarat and will ensure the public is not required to pay bribes in government offices.Kejriwal said that his party government will investigate “scams” of the present government and recover money collected through corrupt means besides promising to stop “illegal businesses” of present ministers and government officers in Gujarat.
“Whenever I visit Gujarat, people talk of different scams. All the large scams during their tenure (of BJP government) will be investigated and the money recovered will be used to provide good schools, electricity — for the service of the public,” he said. Kejriwal on Monday alleged that probe agencies were being used by the BJP-led Centre to conduct raids for “extortion” and not to end corruption.
(With Media Reports with Bureau Report).
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