Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the Congress and the BJP have alternately worked to loot the state for years and they are fighting for power and not for the people. The Congress has ruled Rajasthan for 48 years and the BJP for 18 years, they cannot say they were not given a chance, the AAP national convenor said, exhorting people to bring his “honest party” to power in the state which goes to polls later this year. Kejriwal was addressing a gathering during a ‘Tiranga Yatra’ from Sanganeri Gate to Ajmeri Gate. He was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
“The Congress and the BJP have alternately worked to loot the state. This time, vote for an honest party and bring the AAP to power. We do not know politics but we know how to build good schools, construct roads, provide water, free electricity and health facilities,” Kejriwal told the gathering.
“Going by this trend, this time it is the BJP’s turn. They will come and say bring the double-engine government to power. This is their code word for double corruption. I have seen it in Karnataka where corruption has doubled,” he said.
Vote for the BJP and the Congress if you want filth, drama and corruption, he said.
“They are not fighting for you, they are fighting for the chief minister’s post,” he added.
Kejriwal claimed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje are “one party” and they mobilise their party workers to support each other whenever there is a crisis.
“I have heard that Vasundhara Raje and Ashok Gehlot get along very well… They are great friends.
“If Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s government faces a crisis, then former chief minister Vasundhara Raje makes the whole BJP stand for him… When there was talk that the BJP top brass were removing Vasundhara Raje, Ashok Gehlot made the entire Congress stand for her. They are one party… Vasundhara Raje-Ashok Gehlot party,” the AAP national convenor said.
Before taking part in the rally, Kejriwal told reporters that the AAP is working to strengthen its organisation and working day and night to win the upcoming assembly elections.
Asked about the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate for the Rajasthan polls, Kejriwal said all faces will be known, wait a little.
“This is our first visit and when we meet again after a few days, you will see a strong organisation,” he said.
On the alleged manhandling of the widows of the three CRPF jawans killed in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, who have been protesting since February 28, by police, Kejriwal said, “I am very sorry that the family members of our soldiers who went to meet the chief minister were misbehaved with. This should not have happened.”
The three Pulwama widows are demanding a change in rules so that their relatives and not just children can get government jobs on compassionate grounds.
Addressing the rally, Punjab Chief Minister Maan said the BJP and the Congress don’t want the AAP to expand its base in the country as its governments have built good schools and hospitals.
“And when poor children will become educated and vote with conscience, they will not vote for the BJP and the Congress. Hence, the man who built schools was put in jail,” he said, referring to the arrest of former Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case.
Satyendra Jain, who built good hospitals, was also jailed, he added.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26 in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy for 2021-22. He was arrested by the ED on March 9 in connection with its money laundering probe linked to the excise policy.
Jain, the former Delhi health minister, was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case in May last year.
Mann said buttons on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) can change one’s destiny.
“Earlier, there were only two options and one button had to be pressed. The era of double engine is over and a new engine is required as double engine means double corruption,” he said.
The BJP has sold the railways, LIC and airports, and will sell many more institutions, he charged.
