OPENING A new front in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Saturday “warned” that with Prime Minister Narendra Modi turning 75 next September, those voting for the BJP would be voting for Amit Shah (as PM). Kejriwal also launched an all-out attack on Modi, accusing him of carrying out a “one-nation, one-leader” mission at “two-levels” — by arresting Opposition leaders, and sidelining those within the BJP.
“Main desh ke logon ko aagah karna chahta hoon, Modi ji apne liye vote nahi maang rahe hain, Modi ji Amit Shah ko Pradhan Mantri banane ke liye vote maang rahe hain. Main poochna chahta hoon Modi ji se aur Amit Shah ji se, ye Modi ki guarantee poori kaun karega? Kya Amit Shah Modi ki guarantee poori karenge? Vaise toh mujhe nahi lagta inki sarkar ban rahi hai, lekin jo jo BJP ko vote dene jayen, woh yeh soch ke jaana ki aap Modi ji ke naam pe vote nahi de rahe, aap Amit Shah ke naam pe vote de rahe ho (I want to warn the people of the country that Modi ji is not asking for votes for himself, he is asking for votes to make Amit Shah the Prime Minister. I want to ask Modi ji and Amit Shah ji, who will fulfill Modi’s guarantee’? Will Amit Shah fulfill Modi’s guarantee? Although I do not think that their government will be formed, but whoever goes to vote for the BJP should think that you are voting in the name of Amit Shah, not Modi ji),” he said.
“Pradhan Mantri ji ne ek bahut khatarnak mission chaalu kiya hua hai. Iss mission ka naam hai ‘one-nation, one-leader’. Desh ke saare netaaon ko khatm karna chahte hain Modi ji, aur do star ke upar iss mission ko chala rahe hain. Jitne vipaksh ke neta hain unko jail bhejenge, aur jitne BJP ke neta hain unko nipta denge, unki raajneeti khatm kar denge (The Prime Minister has launched a very dangerous mission. The name of this mission is ‘one-nation, one-leader’. Modi ji wants to eliminate all the leaders of the country and is running this mission at two levels. All the Opposition leaders will be sent to jail, and all the BJP leaders will be disposed of, their politics will be ended),” Kejriwal said.
Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann at a temple on Saturday. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
“If they win the elections, Mamata didi, Tejashwi Yadav, (M K) Stalin, Pinarayi Vijayan, Uddhav Thackeray and all the Opposition leaders will be in jail… They ended the politics of (L K) Advani ji, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sumitra Mahajan. These people did not make Shivraj Singh Chouhan the (Madhya Pradesh) Chief Minister, they ended his politics. They ended the politics of Vasundhara Raje, (M L) Khattar Saheb, Raman Singh… It is now Yogi Adityanath’s turn,” he said.
“Agar ye chunav jeet gaye, mere se likhva lo, do mahine ke andar Uttar Pradesh ka Mukhya Mantri badal denge yeh. Yogi Adityanath ki raajneeti khatm karenge, unko bhi nipta denge. Yehi taanashahi hai doston. Ek hi taanashah bachega iss desh main (If he wins the election, take it in writing from me, he will change the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh within two months. Yogi Adityanath’s politics will be ended, he will be disposed of. This is dictatorship. Only one dictator will survive in this country),” Kejriwal alleged.
Kejriwal said he was making these statements after thinking over the issue for the last 50 days (since his arrest on March 21). “Main 140 crore logon se bheekh maangne aaya hoon. Mere desh ko taanashahi se bacha lo (I have come to beg of the 140 crore people. Save my country from dictatorship). The Supreme Court gave me 21 days (to campaign). One day has 24 hours but I will work for 36 hours. My entire being is devoted to my country,” he said.
Arrested in the Delhi excise policy case on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate and subsequently placed in judicial custody, Kejriwal was granted interim bail until June 1 — the last phase of voting in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections — by the Supreme Court on Friday. He has to surrender on June 2. The court, however, barred him from visiting his office or the Delhi secretariat, and signing official files unless absolutely necessary for obtaining the Lieutenant Governor’s approval.
“They (BJP) sent me to jail. The Prime Minister says he is fighting corruption, but he has inducted the country’s biggest thieves and dacoits in his party. People who Modi ji would accuse of committing a Rs 70,000 crore scam were inducted in the BJP 10 days later. He makes someone the Deputy CM, someone a minister, and closes all ED and CBI cases against them, and yet he says that he is fighting corruption,” Kejriwal said.
“Modi ji, if you want to fight corruption, learn from Kejriwal; he has fought the battle against corruption. In 2015, when our government was formed in Delhi, someone sent me an audio clip of one of our ministers on WhatsApp. In that audio clip, my minister was demanding Rs 5 lakh from a shopkeeper, nobody from the media or the Opposition knew about it. I handed over my own minister to the CBI and sent him to jail. This is the fight against corruption,” Kejriwal said.
“What did you do? You welcome all the corrupt people in the party and you dare to call yourself a crusader against corruption? By arresting me, the BJP has sent the message that they can arrest anyone, even if there is no case against them,” he said.
Responding to the BJP’s criticism on not stepping down from the CM’s post after his arrest, he said: “I don’t have any love for posts… When I became the CM for the first time, I resigned within 49 days. So, why didn’t I resign when I was arrested? The AAP has won Delhi with unprecedented margins. They know they cannot defeat us even for the next 20 years. They conspired so that I would resign and the AAP government would fall. I said I won’t resign, I will run the government from jail… Even Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren shouldn’t have resigned… This is my protest against their taanashahi (dictatorship),” he said.
Predicting an electoral loss for BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, Kejriwal said the INDIA bloc would form the government and AAP would be a part of it. “Kal raat ko aandhi aaye thi (there was a storm yesterday),” he said, referring to his release from jail as well as the thunderstorm in the capital last evening. “It is my assessment that the BJP is not forming the government on June 4. My assessment says the BJP is getting 220-230 seats. The INDIA bloc will form the government, AAP will be a part of it. We will give full statehood to Delhi, and Delhi will have a people’s Governor, not someone from Gujarat,” he said, referring to Lt Governor V K Saxena.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal, along with his wife Sunita and Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, offered prayers at the Hanuman temple and Shiv temple in central Delhi’s Connaught Place. In the evening, he held a roadshow in South Delhi and East Delhi Lok Sabha constituencies.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressing a press conference at AAP headquarters, a day after he was released on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court. (Express photo by Amit Mehra) 
Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann at a temple on Saturday. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
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