In a show of strength amid speculation of his arrest, which has ramped up following the sixth summons issued to him on Wednesday in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal moved a trust vote in the Assembly on Friday. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel admitted the motion and it will come up for discussion in the Assembly starting 11 am on Saturday.  This is the third time that Kejriwal has sought trust vote from the assembly in the past eight years.

Moving the vote of confidence motion in the Assembly, Kejriwal said two AAP MLAs told him that BJP operatives recently approached 7 of their MLAs, proposing, “in a few days, we will apprehend your Chief Minister. Join BJP, and in exchange, receive Rs 25 crores and election tickets.

“The MLAs were told that 21 AAP legislators have agreed to leave the party and more are in touch with the BJP. They offered the MLAs Rs 25 crore to join the BJP. The MLAs told me they did not accept. When we spoke to other MLAs, we found that they had not contacted 21, but seven. They were trying to carry out another Operation Lotus. I want to demonstrate through this motion of confidence that once again, the BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ has faltered in Delhi. None of our MLAs defected, and all remain steadfastly aligned with us,” Kejriwal said.

“So it is clear that the alleged liquor policy scam is not a scam at all but an attempt to break our party and topple the government by filing false cases like they have in other states. Their aim is not to carry out an investigation but to arrest our leaders - and they have already arrested some - in the guise of the liquor policy case. Their aim is to topple the government because they know they can never win elections in Delhi,” the AAP chief claimed.

However, the Chief Minister affirmed that their MLAs unequivocally rejected the enticement. Furthermore, Kejriwal emphasised that the BJP’s agenda extends beyond investigating the alleged liquor scam; rather, it seeks to detain AAP leaders and dismantle the elected government, akin to strategies deployed in other states.

Last month, Kejriwal had alleged that he was on the brink of being arrested in the liquor policy case as part of a BJP conspiracy to topple the AAP government in Delhi and that the BJP was also attempting to contact AAP MLAs, urging them to switch sides in lieu of cash of up to Rs 25 crore.Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri claimed that Kejriwal, despite having the support of 62 MLAs, was bringing the trust vote motion that showed his confidence was shaken.

“Not only this. Even before the trust vote is presented, they are so afraid of just eight BJP MLAs that they got seven of them suspended,” he alleged.

Bidhuri said it was surprising that Kejriwal was tabling a confidence motion alleging BJP of trying to poach AAP MLAs, but was not presenting evidence of it to the police that has already given him a notice in this regard.

The motion in Assembly came days after the Enforcement Directorate once again summoned the Aam Aadami Party (AAP) chief for the sixth time, in connection with an ongoing investigation into the now-scrapped liquor policy. The sixth summons follows a Delhi court’s response to an ED-filed complaint, instructing Kejriwal to appear, asserting that prima facie, the AAP chief is “legally bound” to comply.

Earlier, the ED had moved the court after Kejriwal skipped the fifth summons by the probe agency for questioning in a Delhi liquor policy-linked money laundering case. The agency has also issued sixth summons, asking him to appear on February 19.  Kejriwal, who has denied any wrongdoing, alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to poach AAP MLAs and topple his government using law enforcement agencies. Kejriwal has been asked to appear before the central probe agency on February 19. Previously, he was summoned on February 2, January 18 and January 3 this year, and on December 21 and November 2 in 2023.

Besides, the Delhi police crime branch has also planning to issue a second show cause notice to Kejriwal as he and his minister Atishi has not replied to them.