Arvind Kejriwal urged voters to understand that they are not going to vote for Modiji, but for Amit Shah.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal didn”t mince words as he launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, a day after he walked out of jail following interim bail granted by the Supreme Court.
Kejriwal warned that opposition leaders such as Mamata Banerjee, Tejashwi Yadav, MK Stalin, and Uddhav Thackeray would be jailed if Narendra Modi wins. He said his arrest was meant to set an example that if Kejriwal can be taken into custody, then anyone can be.
“By arresting me, they have given a message that if Kejriwal is arrested then they will arrest anyone. The name of this mission is “One Nation, One Leader”,” he said, alluding to the BJP”s push for the “one nation, one election” system.
Talking about what he perceived as a systematic assault by the BJP, Kejriwal said, “There is a pattern to the BJP”s attacks – jail all chief ministers in Opposition-ruled states and overthrow the government.”
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief, who did not resign as Chief Minister after he was arrested and jailed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case, said it was a “trap” set by the Prime Minister to “finish off” his party and felt that JMM top leader Hemant Soren, who resigned as Jharkhand Chief Minister, should not have quit.
In his 20-min address, following his visit to the Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place, Delhi, the Delhi CM challenged the Prime Minister to “learn from Kejriwal on how to fight corruption”, contrasting it with the BJP”s inclusion of leaders tainted by graft allegations.
“The Prime Minister says he fights against corruption but is inducting thieves and dacoits into his party. A leader who he described as one involved in a Rs 70,000 crore scam was inducted into the party ten days after Modi made the charges. If you want to fight corruption, learn from Kejriwal,” he said, citing instances of sacking and arrests of AAP ministers in Delhi and Punjab.
Responding to concerns regarding the INDIA bloc”s choice for the Prime Minister, Kejriwal posed a counter-question.
“PM Modi is turning 75, on 17th September. He made a rule that leaders in the party would retire after 75 years. Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan, and Yashwant Sinha were retired and now PM Modi is going to retire on 17th September,” he said.
He also predicted that if the BJP came to power again, the first thing PM Modi will do is remove Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.
“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?” the AAP chief said.
Kejriwal urged voters to understand that they are not going to vote for Modiji, but for Amit Shah.
Yogi Adityanath, a five-time Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, first became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017 after becoming a Legislative Council member.
The BJP won the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections under his leadership. In his first Assembly election, Yogi Adityanath won the Gorakhpur (Urban) seat with over one lakh votes. After PM Modi, Adityanath is the most prominent Hindutva face in the country.
