Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has challenged the BJP to win any of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the 2024 general elections. He also claimed that the BJP is plotting to arrest him and other AAP leaders to disrupt their campaign.
Kejriwal made these remarks at a workers’ conference of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at Thyagaraj Stadium on Friday. He was accompanied by party MPs, MLAs and councillors. He told the workers that even if he was jailed, they should not let BJP win a single seat in Delhi.
He asked the workers to go door-to-door and expose the “conspiracies” of the BJP against AAP. He said that the BJP is scared of AAP’s popularity and growth as a national party. AAP will rule the country one day, leaving behind Congress and BJP, he said further.
He also said that he is not greedy for power and he is ready to resign if the people want him to. He claimed that he is the world’s first chief minister who resigned after 49 days without anyone asking him to do so. He instructed the workers to ask the people whether they want him to continue as chief minister from jail or if he should quit.
The context of Kejriwal’s speech was the Enforcement Directorate’s summons to him in the liquor policy case, after which BJP leaders have been saying that he will be arrested soon. Kejriwal said that the BJP has planned to put him and other AAP leaders in jail in Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand as well, to ensure that AAP cannot campaign in the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP has dismissed Kejriwal’s speech as hilarious and accused him of corruption and nepotism. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that Kejriwal has already left all parties far behind in corruption and nepotism. He said that AAP has become the first party whose two state ministers from Delhi and one from Punjab are in jail for their involvement in corruption. He also said that Kejriwal seems convinced that the evidence with investigation agencies is strong enough to put him behind bars.
The 2024 general elections are expected to be held between April and May. The BJP has won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi for two consecutive terms in 2014 and 2019. AAP, which has been in power in Delhi since 2015, is hoping to make a dent in the BJP’s stronghold along with the Congress as part of the INDIA alliance.