Arvind Kejriwal Moves Motion Of Confidence On Day Of Court Summons (image-twitter/ArvindKejriwal)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal moved a confidence motion On Friday in the Delhi assembly. This comes amid allegations by his party that BJP is trying to topple his government.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal was ordered to appear in court on February 17 on a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for skipping the five earlier summons in an excise policy. The sixth summons was issued on Wednesday. The ED has asked the AAP leader to appear before February 19, reports NDTV.
Kejriwal moving the motion of confidence in the Assembly yesterday said that two AAP MLAs had told him that they were approached by BJP members claiming that the Delhi chief minister would be arrested soon.
The BJP members claimed that they have already approached 21 MLAs and offered them Rs 25 crore to join BJP. The MLAs said to Kejriwal that they had declined the offer. “When spoke to the other MLAs, we found that they had not contacted 21, but seven. They were trying to carry out another Operation Lotus”, the AAP leader added.
Moving the motion in the assembly, Kejriwal said, “I want to show that none of our MLAs defected, and all remain steadfastly aligned with us”.
The AAP has in total 62 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi assembly whereas the BJP has only eight. This is the second time the AAP government has sought a trust vote.
Following his earlier claim, the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch had served a notice to Arvind Kejriwal to join the probe into the allegations. The police have asked him to prove the allegations of poaching he leveled against the BJP.
The notice has also asked the AAP leader to name the seven MLAs who were approached for the alleged poaching.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has to appear in court on Saturday following a complaint filed by the central agency stating that the AAP leader has intentionally disobeyed each summons and made each such omission or disobedience a separate offense. The court has said that he was “legally bound” to comply to its order.
ED in its complaint stated that the AAP leader intentionally did not want to obey the summons and kept on giving “lame excuses”. If a high-ranking public functionary like him disobeyed the law, it would “set a wrong example for the common man,” the agency said.
