Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused the BJP of spending “around ₹5,500 crore to poach over 200 legislators” across the country in its bid to topple elected governments.
The BJP’s “Operation Lotus”, however, had failed in Delhi where it had been converted into “Operation Keechad (sludge)” instead, said the Chief Minister. Mr. Kejriwal, without naming the BJP, alleged that “anti-national powers” had joined forces to overthrow the AAP government in Delhi.
He made the allegation during a special session of the Delhi Assembly, which adopted a resolution stating that the AAP-led city government had performed “exceedingly well” in all schemes under the social welfare sector, in addition to the spheres of health and education.
The one-day session, which witnessed dramatic scenes leading to the expulsion of all eight BJP MLAs from the Assembly, was later extended by another day after the introduction of a confidence motion by Mr. Kejriwal.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is currently in the eye of a storm over allegations of corruption related to the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, trained his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of feeling “insecure” about Mr. Kejriwal’s rise both in the country’s political landscape as well as globally.
The Chief Minister said he wanted to face a trust vote on August 29 to prove that no MLA of his party had defected.
He went on to say that a “serial killer is in town” to topple governments in order to satisfy the “lust for power”, linking the recent raids by Central probe agencies against his Ministers to the upcoming Assembly election in Gujarat where, he claimed, the BJP’s citadel is crumbling.
“People are saying all of this is happening due to the Gujarat elections. If we step back from the fight, all the cases will be closed,” Mr. Kejriwal said, adding that so far “these people” have brought down governments in Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Arunachal, Manipur and Meghalaya.
“They have bought out 277 MLAs; if we assume the lower side of ₹20 crore per MLA, then they have spent at least ₹5,500 crore so far in horse-trading,” the Chief Minister added.
Opposition protest
The Opposition BJP, whose MLAs were marshalled out soon after the House proceedings began, called on Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena with their complaint against their expulsion and demanded legal action.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said BJP MLAs were not allowed to speak on subjects included in the day’s agenda and AAP MLAs “crossed all limits” by coming to the Well of the House and “behaving indecently” with the Opposition legislators.
The LOP alleged that after the ruckus, Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla “did not listen to the Opposition” and expelled it saying BJP MLA Ajay Mahawar was “live streaming the proceedings of the House from his phone”.
“Surprisingly, no reason was given for the expulsion of the rest of the members. This action of the Deputy Speaker is completely unconstitutional,” he said.
Mr. BIdhuri accused the AAP government of “misusing the House” by calling one-day Assembly sessions where “no public issue is discussed”.
“The House is being used only to hurl abuses at the Central government, which is an open insult to democracy... The conduct of the ruling party MLAs is also indecent and unparliamentary; therefore, legal action should be taken against them,” Mr. Bidhuri said.
