AtishiAam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi minister Atishi made a startling claim on Tuesday that following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Enforcement Directorate will come after her and other party members Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak, and Raghav Chadha.
“I have been told that soon there will be ED raids at our residence and then we will be taken into custody. The BJP is now targeting the next line of the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party,” Atishi told reporters.
Atishi said that the BJP got scared seeing the reception to the INDIA bloc rally at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.
“I have been approached to join the BJP through a personal contact. I have been told that either I can join the BJP and save my political career or get arrested in the next one month. An individual very close to me told me that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made up his mind to put every AAP leader in jail. Starting with Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, now they have arrested Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. But now they want to arrest another four top leaders — me, Raghav Chadha, Durgesh Pathak and Saurabh Bharadwaj,” Atishi said.
Atishi’s claims come a day after the ED mentioned her and Saurabh Bharadwaj in the court and said Arvind Kejriwal told the agency that Vijay Nair — a key figure in the alleged liquor scam — reported to Atishi and Bharadwaj.
The BJP dismissed the allegations as “baseless”. “I too can say that Saurabh Bharadwaj called me up and requested me to protect them from Arvind Kejriwal who wants to put them behind bars and make Sunita Kejriwal the Chief Minister. This is their internal tussle, which is coming out again and again in different forms,” BJP leader RP Singh said.
“The truth is that action will be taken against all whose names are involved in the matter. It is clear that the fight for the CM post has begun in AAP. Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi are on one side and Sunita Kejriwal and Arvind Kejriwal are on the other,” he told reporters.
On Monday, AAP MLA Rituraj Jha also alleged that the BJP had approached him with an offer of Rs 25 crore in exchange for defecting from the party and persuading 10 other MLAs to join the BJP. Addressing the Delhi Assembly, Jha accused the BJP of attempting to destabilise the Delhi government.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor scam and was sent to judicial custody till April 15. AAP maintains that Kejriwal will not resign as the chief minister and continue to run the government from the Tihar jail.