New Delhi: Referring to the alleged attack on his vehicle, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said Delhi has never witnessed a poll campaign when a “murderous attack” was attempted on a former CM. Dismissing the AAP’s “conspiring to eliminate their party chief" claim as a “fake narrative”, BJP's Parvesh Verma, who is contesting against Mr Kejriwal in the Assembly poll, said the former CM will lose the seat to him by 20,000 votes. He alleged that the AAP chief “attempted to run over Valmiki and Dalit youth with his car.”
Claiming that one of the persons involved in the alleged attack on Mr Kejriwal's car during campaigning in the constituency on Saturday is “frequently seen” with Mr Verma, the AAP alleged that the BJP is conspiring to “eliminate” the party's chief as they cannot defeat him.
Targeting the BJP, Mr Kejriwal said, “The people of Delhi have never witnessed such campaigning and violence in which a murderous attack was attempted on a former chief minister. This is their way of campaigning because they are losing badly.” The AAP chief also laughed off Mr Verma’s claim that he is going to lose the New Delhi seat by 20,000 votes. “Let him live in dreams for some days,” he said.
Addressing a joint press conference with party MP Sanjay Singh, Delhi chief minister Atishi accused the BJP of orchestrating the attack. “The people who attacked Mr Kejriwal and threw stones at his car are serious offenders with cases registered against them, including robbery and attempt to murder,” she alleged.
Ms Atishi claimed the name of one of the alleged attackers is Rahul alias Shanky and he is “closely associated” with Mr Verma. “This individual who has multiple criminal cases against him was involved in the attack. He is frequently seen with Mr Verma. They want to eliminate Mr Kejriwal,” she added.
Mr Singh said: “The BJP is unable to defeat us in the Assembly polls, so they are resorting to such tactics to remove Mr Kejriwal from their way.”
Reacting to the AAP’s allegations, Mr Verma accused the party of trying to create a “fake narrative" of the attack and claimed that he will defeat Mr Kejriwal by 20,000 votes. He alleged that Mr Kejriwal “attempted to run over Valmiki and Dalit youth with his car” and asserted that the injured youth were once Mr Kejriwal’s supporters and worked tirelessly for his party.
“When they dared to question Mr Kejriwal’s 10 years of governance, they were labelled as goons and targeted,” he added.
The BJP leader claimed Mr Kejriwal is restless as he has not fulfilled any of the 10 promises he made to the people of Delhi before the 2020 Assembly polls, and now the women and youth are asking him questions.
“A vehicle in which Mr Kejriwal himself was sitting hit three local youths, but the AAP is creating a fake narrative of an attack on him,” Mr Verma charged. He said he has submitted a complaint with the Election Commission and given videos.
On the AAP’s charges that those who allegedly attacked Mr Kejriwal were his “goons,” Mr Verma said the entire one lakh voters of the New Delhi constituency are his family.
“Mr Kejriwal is saying that the people of the constituency are goons. The three local youth hit by Mr Kejriwal’s vehicle at his instance were also local voters who wanted to ask him about jobs,” he said.
Mr Verma also claimed that Mr Kejriwal’s convoy during campaigns includes 50 vehicles in which 350 Punjab police personnel carrying AK-47 and other firearms accompany him. He has not been able to step out of his New Delhi constituency and was conducting door-to-door campaigns. Not a single photo or video of his public meeting in the constituency is available due to poor response by the locals, he claimed.
