The Delhi BJP and Congress on Sunday lashed out at the ruling party at the issue of the senior AAP leader and former Delhi Minister Kailash Gahlot leaving the government over ‘awkward’ and ‘embarrassing’ controversies like 'sheeshmahal' while the AAP called it a ‘dirty political conspiracy’ of the BJP and said that it wants to win the Delhi Assembly polls by misusing the ED and CBI.
Attacking the AAP, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva in a press conference said, “Delhi government minister Kailash Gehlot, in the letter he has written while resigning from his ministerial post, has raised the issues of corruption in Arvind Kejriwal's Sheeshmahal building construction and Yamuna cleaning work, which demand answers from Kejriwal but he is trying to divert the topic but now the time has come for his departure.”
Stating that resignation in the political field is not a new thing, Sachdeva asserted that the questions asked by Gehlot are definitely shocking. “Kailash Gehlot has written some of the same issues while resigning, which shows that no Delhi resident who wants development of Delhi will be a partner in Arvind Kejriwal's corruption. Kejriwal, who has sworn on the heads of his children that he would not take government housing, should explain what is the compulsion that he not only committed corruption in housing but also wasted the money of the taxpayers of Delhi like water?” he said.
He accused the AAP supremo of throwing away the mike instead of answering the journalists when they asked him about the resignation of his 12-year-old colleague Kailash Gehlot. Union Minister Harsh Malhotra said that we all have just seen in the Mayor elections that eight councillors of AAP did cross voting without leaving his party.
“Rajkumar Anand and Kailash Gehlot have resigned being ministers, the biggest reason for this is the corruption within AAP and the dictatorial attitude of Arvind Kejriwal due to which AAP MLAs and councillors are feeling suffocated,” he added, adding that the councillors, troubled by the allegations of corruption against the party, cross-voted in an attempt to elect a good mayor.
Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta called the resignation ‘a clear sign of the party’s disintegration and collapse’. “AAP’s own leaders and ministers are dissatisfied with the working style of the party’s leadership and are feeling suffocated within.”
Calling AAP a sinking ship, he added that even the party’s ministers have realized that the personal ambitions of some of its senior leaders have started to outweigh the party’s stated objectives. Referring to the issues raised in Gehlot’s resignation, Gupta said, “Gehlot himself has now acknowledged that the promises made by the party to the people of Delhi remain unfulfilled.”
The LoP declared that AAP’s lies and corruption won’t last much longer and accused Arvind Kejriwal’s government of deceiving, exploiting, and looting the people of Delhi. He predicted that in the coming days, more senior leaders might follow Gehlot’s example and abandon this sinking ship.
Reacting to the resignation by the former senior leader of AAP, Delhi Congress President Devender Yadav said "We have received the information that Kailash Gahlot submitted his resignation and he has made some clear allegations against the party. He has pointed towards the pollution in the Yamuna River and the controversies around 'Sheeshmahal'. AAP leaders are now either leaving the party or are getting arrested on corruption charges. The party is entirely submerged in corruption and their MLAs and Ministers are leaving the party. People have also lost their faith in the ruling party. We can say that AAP has now become a sinking ship."
Meanwhile, the AAP claimed that the resignation was driven by pressure from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh called the resignation part of the BJP’s ‘dirty politics’, while AAP Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar asserted that he chose to join the BJP to avoid imprisonment amid ongoing ED and CBI investigations against him and his family.
“Pressure was created on Kailash Gahlot by conducting ED-CBI raids, and now he is speaking according to the script given to him by the BJP. The Modi Washing Machine has become active before the Delhi elections. Now many leaders will be inducted into the BJP through this machine,” Singh said.
He added, “Kailash Gahlot was being continuously pressurized by the BJP, and ED-CBI raids were being conducted. He was repeatedly called for questioning at the ED office, and income tax raids were conducted at his house. This is all BJP’s script. Whatever kind of script they make and whatever conspiracy they have hatched against Kailash Gahlot, he will have to speak in the same way.”
