Ahead of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's appearance before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the excise policy case, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha took a swipe at the Centre saying that the “BJP government has made a plan to put all Opposition chief ministers in jail to get a freeway in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Chadha said that the central agencies will first arrest Kejriwal and then will go after other chief ministers including Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin.
He said that 95 per cent of all the cases registered by the central agencies were against the political opponents of the BJP.“They have registered cases against all big leaders including Manish Sisodia, Rahul Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah," he said.
Lashing out at the Centre, the AAP leader said, “Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats and we all know that if the INDIA bloc contests the Lok Sabha elections, BJP is going to lose all seven seats of Delhi. This has made the BJP so fearful that it is now planning to arrest Opposition leaders and first on the list is Kejriwal."
Taking a jibe at the BJP, he said, "The BJP's plan is ‘Arvind Kejriwal ko jail me daalo, 7 seat Delhi ki apni jeb me daalo’.”He asserted that after INDIA bloc came into action, the BJP has understood that they won't be able to win in 2024.
"Therefore, the BJP made a plan to arrest all the top leaders of all the political parties of INDIA bloc as when they will be in jail they won't be able to contest elections as they will remain busy with the court cases," Chadha said.
He also dubbed the BJP's plan as “very dangerous” saying that it will hurt the foundation of democracy in India.Chadha's remarks came a day after the ED summoned Kejriwal for questioning in the now-scrapped excise policy scam case in which AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have been arrested.
Kejriwal has been summoned by the ED in the case for the first time. He was earlier questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case in April this year.