Launching a fresh attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the saffron party has launched “Operation Jhaadu” to crush his party as the ruling dispensation at Centre looks at it as the biggest challenge.
Kejriwal alleged as part of the ‘Operation Jhaadu’, AAP leaders would be arrested and the party’s bank accounts would also be seized while the party office would be vacated bringing the party on to streets.
The chief minister, however, asserted that no one would be able to break the party even if all the leaders are sent to jail as AAP is the party of the country’s 140 crore people’s dreams. “Put us in jail, and see whether it will destroy or develop the party,” Kejriwal said.
Recounting the 50 days he spent in jail, he said he read the Holy Geeta twice and the Ramayana once utilising the time in a positive way. “The kind of challenges that came our way could have finished had Lord Bajrang Bali’s blessings not been with us,” the AAP chief said.
Conceding that AAP leaders could be arrested, he asked how they would be able to arrest the (their) thoughts.
The national convenor of the AAP also claimed that every AAP leader has come up after going through the toughest challenges and passing rigorous trials, yet if any of them is found doing something wrong, the party itself would show them the door.
In his address to party workers and leaders ahead of the AAP’s proposed protest march to the BJP headquarters, Kejriwal said that bigger challenges are ahead and all must be prepared to take them on.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is worried about the rise of the AAP. The party indeed has risen too fast. They (the BJP) have started ‘Operation Jhaadu’ to crush the party. In the coming times, our bank accounts will be frozen and we will be brought on the road since our office will also be taken away,” he said.
Meanwhile, the AAP said the leaders and workers of the party, led by its chief, were stopped by the police on their way to the BJP office by installing barricading on the roads. They continued their protest on the road ignoring a half-an-hour ultimatum issued to them by the police to disperse. However, the police did not detain the party leaders.
During the protest, the party workers raised slogans like “Aam Aadmi Party Zindabad” and “Jail Ka jawab Vote Se”.
Kejriwal is presently out on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court till June 1 in connection with the money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. Among the conditions uner which the bail was granted to the CM, he cannot attend his office and cannot talk about the liquor policy case, etc.
The AAP chief has been holding road shows, and campaigning for INDIA bloc candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, security has been stepped up outside the BJP HQ in Delhi in the protest call given by the AAP.