AAP: Big conspiracy, CM Kejriwal won't quit
Lashes out at Opp, says it won't take lessons on morality from BJP.
New Delhi: Denying charges of corruption levelled by sacked minister Kapil Mishra, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday said that Arvind Kejriwal would not step down as chief minister of Delhi.
Senior party leader Sanjay Singh said Mr Mishra was acting at behest of BJP and the central government in his campaign against Mr Kejriwal, saying this is part of a larger conspiracy to “finish off” the party and to “silence” the opposition.
Breaking his silence ever since the scandal broke out in the AAP, Mr Kejriwal said that the truth will be victorious. “Truth will emerge victorious. It will begin from the Delhi Assembly’s special session tomorrow,” Mr Kejriwal tweeted.
Mr Singh said that the kind of allegations Mr Mishra had levelled, made it clear that he was being used to harass Mr Kejriwal and other ministers in the Delhi government. “Mr Mishra is now speaking the language of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. He is saying the same thing the two parties had been saying for months. This makes it clear who is behind all this,” he said.
On Mr Mishra’s allegations that he saw Mr Kejriwal take '2 crore from Mr Jain, Mr Singh said, “Before making such serious allegations, Mr Mishra did not even feel it important to clarify when the deal was conducted and which relative of Mr Kejriwal was involved,” Mr Singh said.
Rejecting the BJP’s demand for Mr Kejriwal’s resignation, Mr Singh said that “severe” allegations of corruption were made against finance minister Arun Jaitley by suspended BJP member Kirti Azad, but nothing happened. “Despite serious allegations of corruption against Mr Jaitley, he is still holding the post of finance minister. So, we do not need to learn the lessons of morality and principles from the BJP and the Congress,” Mr Singh said.
Mr Singh also pointed put that Mr Mishra had himself written a letter to the ACB in September last year, saying that under pressure, the anti-graft body was trying to implicate the chief minister in the water tanker scam.
Meanwhile, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain hit back at Mr Mishra, saying “no deal took place” between him and party chief Arvind Kejriwal and the sacked minister was “lying” after “losing his mental balance”. Mr Jain also is likely to file a defamation case against Mr Mishra, a senior official close to the minister said. “How much will Kapilji lie?…There is limit to foolishness,” the health minister said.