Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday made a sensational claim saying the BJP asked him to split the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and in return offered to close all cases registered against him by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the excise policy. The BJP strongly rejected Sisodia’s claim and asked him to name the person who made the offer.
After Sisodia’s claims of being “approached” by the BJP, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the CBI-ED raids were attempts to topple his Government and asserted that “Operation Lotus” proved to be a failure in the national Capital.
“I have got a message from the BJP — leave the AAP and join the BJP, we will close all CBI/ED cases. My reply to the BJP: I am a descendant of Maharana Pratap, I am a Rajput. I will sacrifice myself but will not bow in front of the corrupt and schemers. The cases against me are false. You can do whatever you want,” Sisodia tweeted.
Later addressing a Press conference in Ahmedabad, Sisodia said he was surprised when someone came to him with a message that he has two offers from the BJP.
“The messenger said all big cases registered against you by the CBI-ED will be taken back. The other offer was that I break the party and they will make you Chief Minister,” the AAP leader claimed. “I gave a clear political answer to them, saying Kejriwal is my political guru and I have learned politics from him. I have not come into politics to be CM or PM,” Sisodia said.
In a dig at the BJP, Kejriwal in response to Sisodia’s claims tweeted, “It means that the CBI and ED raids have nothing to do with the liquor policy and corruption? These raids were carried out only to topple the AAP Government in Delhi? Like they have done in other States.”
Later, he tweeted, “Operation Lotus fails in Delhi.” Lotus is the party symbol of the BJP, and the term - Operation Lotus has been used by the Opposition parties for accusing the BJP of attempts to topple the elected Governments. Kejriwal and Sisodia are currently in Gujarat to strengthen the AAP’s base there in the run-up to the State Assembly polls scheduled later this year.
Other AAP leaders, including Sanjay Singh, Atishi, and Saurabh Bhardwaj, too backed Sisodia but neither they nor the Deputy Chief Minister disclosed the name of the person from the BJP who had approached him with such offers.
On the other hand, taking to Twitter, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari asked Sisodia to name the person on whose phone messages were sent by the BJP since the Minister himself had earlier spoken about the CBI seizing his mobile following a raid at his residence on Friday.
“Manish himself said the CBI seized his phone. Then, the name of the person on whose phone the messages were sent and the calls was made must be revealed and the device should be investigated,” Tiwari’s post on Twitter, roughly translated from Hindi, read.
He then said once the name of the person is disclosed and the phone is examined, everything will be crystal clear (“doodh ka doodh aur sharab ka sharab hojayega”). Meanwhile, addressing a Press conference at the party headquarters, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the Government incorporated the provision of 10 per cent increase in liquor license fee at the time of renewal.
“But it was not taken, which resulted in a loss of at least Rs 900 crore to the exchequer….Every time we ask them tough questions, they keep changing the goal post. We are giving them 24 hours to answer our question,” said Bhatia.
The BJP leader said the Delhi Government committee recommended that wholesale distribution should be kept with the government, retail vending should be given based on a new lottery system to ensure transparency in the process and make provision for a 10% increase in license fees at the time of renewal.
“But the committee’s recommendations regarding the wholesale and lottery system were not incorporated in the policy. Kejriwal and Sisodia are the first Chief Minister and Deputy CM in the country who don’t trust Government agencies. The wholesale distribution (L1) was given to private players despite the committee’s recommendation causing a loss to the exchequer,” said Bhatia. Instead of a lottery system for retail vends for 32 zones, Bhatia said, “They selected 16 companies and gave them two zones each. They even gave a waiver of Rs 44 crore on license fee and waived off the earnest money deposit of a firm worth Rs 30 crore.”
The BJP leader said Kejriwal’s silence on corruption charges proves that he is “hardcore dishonest’. Bhatia said Kejriwal and his deputy, who is “accused number one in the liquor policy scam”, keep changing the goalpost every time the BJP asks them tough questions. Bhatia said that the BJP is a “respected family” and has no place for “corrupt people”.
“Earlier, we had given 24 hours to him to respond to the charges. If he’s a ‘kattar emandar’ (hardcore honest man) why is he not answering the questions being raised? Only one tweet has come up which is meaningless. We again give 24 hours to Kejriwal to answer questions on charges of corruption in the Delhi excise policy,” he said.
Referring to the Delhi excise policy, he said the AAP leader was “breaking records in corruption” (‘bhrashtachar ka kirtiman’). BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri who was also present asked why Kejriwal was not answering the questions being raised on the excise policy.