New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday described Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement to resign as Delhi chief minister as a “confession of crime” and wondered if he offered to quit because of infighting within AAP.
It also termed Kejriwal’s move a “drama” and claimed he was playing an “emotional card” in a bid to make a virtue out of necessity as the Supreme Court, by granting him “conditional bail” in the excise policy case, restricted him from entering his office and signing any files.
“When Arvind Kejriwal talked about resigning, it became a confession of his crime. He accepted that the charges levelled against him were such that he could not continue as chief minister,” BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said during a press conference at the party headquarters. He also wondered why Kejriwal did not resign when he was arrested in connection with the alleged scam.
“Him talking about resigning and demanding early polls in Delhi after coming out of jail on bail raises suspicion,” Trivedi said. “Could it be that there is some conflict going on within his party due to which he feels that it will be difficult to handle it now?” The BJP leader said that, contrary to his character, Kejriwal was “speaking nonsense”. “He is still a chief minister and his party has a massive majority in the Delhi Assembly. If he wants elections to be held, he can convene a Cabinet meeting and recommend dissolution of the assembly,” Trivedi said. “His demand (for early polls) shows just how bizarre his character has become,” the BJP leader said. Trivedi said the “strange and bizarre character” of AAP was that the self-proclaimed “kattar imaandar (outright honest)” Kejriwal came out from jail with a “tarnished reputation” and received a warm welcome.
“The way crackers were burst on his coming out of jail on bail, Kejriwal became the country’s first chief minister who broke his own government’s rule against bursting of crackers in Delhi,” he charged.
The BJP’s Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva also slammed Kejriwal and said he talked about going to the people’s court when they had already given their verdict in the Lok Sabha polls in which AAP could not win any seat in the national capital. He claimed that none of the Delhi government departments was free of corruption under Kejriwal’s rule. “Dismiss the government. Let all Cabinet ministers resign and conduct elections in Delhi in November. The people of Delhi will give a reply,” Sachdeva said. Another BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said Kejriwal had played an “emotional card” by announcing his resignation in a bid to make a virtue out of necessity.