Kejriwal lost his mind in jail, says Adityanath after AAP chief’s claim

He also hit out at Kejriwal for being a part of the Opposition INDIA bloc, saying he has “committed a sin” by joining hands with Congress against whom Anna Hazare had wage a movement over “corruption”.

Earlier in the day, at a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, an INDIA bloc ally, in Lucknow, Kejriwal claimed that “one leader” who could be an obstacle in Amit Shah’s path of becoming the successor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is Yogi Adityanath and reiterated his charge that the BJP leadership would remove him from the post of UP chief minister within two months of coming to power at the Centre.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a rule that anyone over 75 years of age will not be given any post in the government and the organisation and will be retired. L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan were made to retire as per this rule along with several BJP leaders who were removed or not given tickets. PM Modi is going to be 75 next year and has decided to make Amit Shah the prime minister of the country,” Kejriwal said.

Claiming that Modi has been working in this direction for the last one to two years, Kejriwal alleged that all those leaders in BJP who could have become an obstacle in Shah’s path to becoming Modi’s successor “have been cut to size and sidelined”.

Former chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje, Raman Singh, Devendra Fadnavis and Manohar Lal Khattar have been finished, Kejriwal said and added: “There is only one person who could prove to be a thorn in the way of Amit Shah, and he is Adityanath. They have now decided to remove Yogi Adityanath within two months if their government is formed (at the Centre).”

Stating that after he had raised these two issues in Delhi four days ago, Kejriwal said: “Amit Shah and other leaders expressed their emotions, saying Modi ji will not retire after turning 75 and that he will be completing his full five-year term. But Modi ji did not come out to deny that he would not be resigning and would not retire… I have full faith that Modi ji will follow the rule made by him. Otherwise, people will say that Modi ji had made the rule to remove Advani ji.”

Kejriwal then went on to add that while BJP leaders came out and publicly said that Modi will not retire after turning 75, “no BJP leader commented on my remark that Adityanath will be removed”.

“So, now it is confirmed that they have planned to do it and there is no one to speak in support of Yogi Adityanath. His removal is almost decided,” Kejriwal added.

Slamming the BJP for its “400 paar” slogan, Kejriwal claimed: “The BJP has been reiterating the slogan for months while seeking votes, saying that Modi ji needed this number to do something big. We came to know later that they want to abolish reservations for SC/ST and OBCs.  We know their ecosystem — the RSS, BJP. Since the beginning, they have always been against reservation. We want to alert the people that they need 400 seats in Lok Sabha to change the Constitution.”

He, however, claimed that the BJP was getting around 220 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, and listed the names of states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, and Rajasthan where he said the BJP was not getting votes.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also claimed that the BJP would be limited to 143 seats in the ongoing elections. “The BJP has been defeated in the first four phases. It was giving the slogan of winning 400 seats but is winning only 143 of the total 543 seats,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said and thanked Kejriwal for supporting the INDIA bloc.

While AAP is a part of the INDIA bloc, it is not contesting any seat in UP. As part of the INDIA bloc, AAP is contesting seats in alliance with the Congress in Delhi, Punjab, and Gujarat.