Arvind Kejriwal, who had taken on Narendra Modi in Varanasi constituency, on Tuesday said “perhaps” he is the most popular leader in the country currently but wondered why BJP is avoiding facing polls in the capital when it claims a wave in its favour.
The AAP leader, who quit the Chief Minister’s post after leading a 49-day-long government, said BJP was afraid of losing elections and that is why it was trying to avoid facing the electorate despite winning all seven seats in Lok Sabha polls in Delhi.
“They are afraid they will lose. All the surveys coming now are showing that AAP will get an overwhelming majority if the elections are held today. It is their government at the Centre, it is their government in MCD. They have seven MPs and they claim it is a wave sweeping across the nation in their favour. Then go for an election. Why they are resorting to these kind of horse trading, buying of MLAs, offering four crore rupees,” he said.
“Perhaps,” Mr. Kejriwal said when asked whether he agreed that Modi was the most popular leader in the country now.
Coming down hard on Lt Governor Najeeb Jung for seeking to invite BJP to form government in the city, Mr. Kejriwal said there was “absolutely no possibility” for the saffron party to take over the reins without indulging in horse-trading.
“The manner in which the LG of Delhi has behaved in the last few weeks clearly shows that he has been batting for BJP,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
Insisting that any invite to BJP to form government will be unconstitutional, he said “I don’t know what arithmetic the Lieutenant Governor has that he has written to the President this letter seeking approval to invite the BJP to form the government.”
Asked whether he regret fighting the elections against Mr. Modi in Varanasi, Mr. Kejriwal said ‘No’.
He said people had very “high hopes” initially that as soon as government was formed as they expected that inflation and prices will come down and corruption will be contained.
But, he said, peoples’ hopes were “betrayed”. “But people still have hopes and everyone says that let give him more time and people are willing to give him time,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
On BJP’s view that strength of the government could be known through secret ballot, he said it was not possible under the Constitution.
“We have consulted very senior advocates. No Article of the Constitution allows secret ballot and in the business rules of Delhi Legislative Assembly it is clearly written that voting can take place only by a show of hands. There is nothing about secret ballot,” he said.
Mr. Kejriwal also rejected criticism that he quit as Delhi Chief Minister to become the Prime Minister.
“I didn’t resign as chief minister to get a major role in the Centre. I resigned from the chief ministership because we actually thought that immediately, there will be Delhi Assembly elections and we will get a clear majority and then we will run government for next five years and make some big systemic changes in Delhi; that was the intention,” he said.
Mr. Kejriwal said he did not have ambition to become Prime Minister. “I have said so many times that I was personally against fighting Lok Sabha elections at that scale.” AAP had contested in around 430 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.
Asked about inner-party democracy, Mr. Kejriwal said AAP has more inner-party democracy than any other party.
“Firstly, let me say with all strength at my command that AAP has more inner-party democracy than any other party in this country. Secondly, it is a new party, we cannot expect everything to be hunky dory in this party. There are a lot of things which may not be in order. We are putting our best efforts to put them in order.
“I may have several weaknesses, I am trying to rectify them. I am a human, not god. There is one thing, our intentions are noble,” he said.
Queried about his style of leadership and whether he takes criticism as constructive, he said, “Of course. I have huge respect for Shanti Bhushan. I greatly admire and respect him. He is a guide for us. He has the right to even slap me. Whatever issues he has raised, we will work on it.”
Mr. Bhushan had last month criticised Mr. Kejriwal’s style of functioning.
