New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal began his election campaign after his release from jail on Friday with a direct attack on the BJP. “They want to finish us,” he said, and alleged PM Modi will attack BJP leaders next.
“They want to crush us, but the Aam Aadmi Party is an idea. It will keep growing the more they try to finish us,” Kejriwal said in his first press conference since his release. He singled out PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah as engineers behind a power takeover within the BJP and referred to how the BJP changes chief ministers in many states before assembly elections to “clip their wings”.
“If the BJP comes to power again, the first thing PM Modi will do is to change Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath,” Kejriwal said. “The politics of (BJP leaders) LK Advani, Murli Joshi, Shivraj Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje, Khattar, Raman Singh has been finished. Yogi Adityanath is next. If he (PM Modi) wins, he will change UP Chief Minister within a month,” he added.
“There is a pattern to the BJP’s attacks – jail all chief ministers in Opposition-ruled states and overthrow the government,” said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and pointed at how Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was also “hounded” by central agencies, allegedly on the behest of the central government.
“Our AAP is a small party, present in two states. But the Prime Minister left no stone unturned to crush our party and sent four leaders to jail at the same time. If four top leaders of big parties go to jail, the party ends,” Kejriwal said. “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.
Without taking any names, Kejriwal alleged that a “dictator wants to end democracy” and urged for the support of people in “saving the country”.
“…Whenever a dictator tried to take over, the people of the country uprooted him. Today again a dictator wants to end democracy…I am fighting against that dictator but I cannot do anything alone. I have come to beg from 140 crore people to support me in saving the country from this dictator…The Supreme Court has given me 21 days, I will travel across the country. Every drop of my blood is for the country…” he said.
“I am coming straight from jail to you. It feels great to be with you after 50 days. I just went to Hanuman temple with my wife and CM Bhagwant Mann. Bajrang Bali’s blessings are on our party and us. It is by his grace that I am among you today…” the Delhi CM said.
The Delhi CM revealed why he did not resign from his post while being lodged in jail and said, “If you imprison democracy in jail, democracy will run from jail. Even Hemant Soren should not have resigned. By not resigning, I am battling against Tanashahi.”
“When I was in jail, some people raised this issue that why doesn’t Arvind Kejriwal resign from the post of Delhi CM? I have not come to become CM or PM…In the last 75 years, elections have been held in so many states, AAP government was formed in Delhi with the most historic majority, no other political party could win in any state with such a huge margin. They knew could never defeat AAP, so a conspiracy was hatched to send Kejriwal to jail and the government would fall but we did not fall into their trap,” he said.
