New Delhi: A day after his release on interim bail, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Saturday launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging he was on a "one nation, one leader" mission to impose "dictatorship" by putting all opposition leaders behind bars and "politically finishing off" those in the BJP.
Addressing a gathering at the AAP headquarters here, the party supremo said Modi is asking for votes for Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming the latter will be his successor after he "retires" on turning 75. Later in the day, Kejriwal held his first roadshow for Lok Sabha election campaign along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann in the South Delhi constituency. He also held his second roadshow in East Delhi's Krishna Nagar.
Standing through the sunroof of a car in Mehrauli, he asserted the BJP will not form the government on June 4 and said if the INDIA bloc comes to power, the direction and fate of the country will change. Full statehood will also be provided to Delhi, he promised. Excitement was palpable at Kejriwal's first roadshow. AAP supporters and workers danced to 'dhol' beats with pahadi music and bhangra performances setting the stage to welcome the chief minister in Mehrauli.
"In the last 20 hours after release from jail, I talked to poll experts and people, and got to know the BJP is not going to form the government," Kejriwal told AAP workers and supporters at the party headquarters. Ahead of restarting his election campaign, Kejriwal along with wife Sunita and Mann offered prayers at the Hanuman temple in central Delhi's Connaught Place.
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal interim bail in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam to enable him to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections and asked him to surrender on June 2, a day after the last phase of the seven-phase poll gets over.
"These people (BJP leaders) ask INDIA bloc about their (PM) face. I am asking the BJP who will be their PM. Modi ji is turning 75 on September 17 next year. He had made the rule that people aged 75 would be retired. They retired LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan," Kejriwal said at the AAP headquarters.
"Modi will retire next year. He is seeking votes for making Amit Shah the prime minister. Will Shah fulfil Modiji's guarantee?" he asked. Brushing aside Kejriwal's remarks, Shah told a press conference in Hyderabad that Modi will continue to lead the country and there is "no confusion in the BJP" on the issue.
Hitting back at the BJP, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said Modi should come forward to clarify the BJP's '75 years retirement formula' which they have imposed on their senior party leaders. Singh said Kejriwal raised the "genuine" issue of '75 years age rule', which was made by Modi.
"They (BJP leaders, including Shah) said whatever rule PM Modi has made, it will be implemented on other leaders but not on Modi," Singh said at the AAP office here. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi also took a swipe at Kejriwal, saying his remarks about Shah are an acknowledgement that the BJP is set to retain power for a third straight term.
He also said Kejriwal is speaking of the BJP's succession plan but could not have trust in any of his AAP colleagues to succeed him when he was jailed on money laundering charges. In his speech at the party headquarters, Kejriwal claimed if the BJP wins the Lok Sabha elections, all opposition leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Tejashvi Yadav, M K Stalin, Pinarayi Vijayan and Uddhav Thackeray, will be in jail.
"The prime minister has launched a very dangerous mission. This mission is called 'one nation, one leader'. Modi ji wants to finish off all the leaders in the country. It is being run at two levels- all the opposition leaders will be sent to jail and the BJP leaders will be politically finished," Kejriwal charged.
"If they win the election, they won't leave any BJP leader. They finished LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sumitra Mahajan politically. They finished politics of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who won the Madhya Pradesh polls for them but they did not appoint him chief minister. They also politically finished Vasundhara Raje, Khattar, Raman Singh," he charged further.
The next in line is Yogi Adityanath, Kejriwal claimed. "I can give in writing they will change the UP chief minister if they win the Lok Sabha polls. They will finish politics of Yogi Adityanath and also finish him politically," he alleged. "This 'one nation, one leader' is a dictatorship and only one dictator will remain in the country," said the AAP national convener.
There were several occasions in the 4000-year-old history of the country when the dictators emerged and tried to capture the country but people uprooted them, he asserted. Kejriwal said he will work tirelessly to campaign across the country to "finish dictatorship" in the country. He alleged the prime minister gave a message to the country with his arrest that - "there will be no case and still I will get you arrested".
The BJP has been attacking Kejriwal for not stepping down from the chief minister's post despite being in custody for 50 days. Talking about why he did not resign, he said, "The chief minister's post is not important for me. I did not step down as the chief minister because a conspiracy was hatched to force me to resign on a fake case."
Kejriwal also alleged that all "thieves and dacoits" are inducted by the BJP. "If the prime minister wants to learn about fighting corruption, he should learn from Arvind Kejriwal. We sent the corrupt to jail and even our own ministers," he added. He also alleged that the "prime minister has left no stone unturned to crush the AAP by sending its four top leaders to prison".
"They thought that the party would be finished. But AAP is not just a party, it is a thought, the more they destroy, the more our party will progress," he asserted. "No one expected that I would be able to come out in the middle of the elections, but because of your prayers and blessings of Lord Hanuman I am among you all," he said.
"Prime Minister, learn how to fight corruption from Arvind Kejriwal. Narendra Modi has gathered the country's biggest thieves, bigwigs and dacoits in his party and says that I am fighting corruption," he said. "Kejriwal has fought against corruption. We have not spared even our ministers in corruption cases. They were sent to jail without the opposition and the media knowing about it," he claimed.
Mann said Kejriwal is now a "top" political leader of the country and added his party will wipe out the BJP and the Congress in Punjab and win all 13 seats there. At Mehrauli, Kejriwal said he was fighting against dictatorship with all his power. "I need your support. The country never accepted any dictator and people removed them. I have come to seek your support to fight dictatorship," he said.
"They are losing seats everywhere, be it Karnataka, Haryana. In Punjab, they will not win anything and even in Delhi, all the seven seats will be won by the INDIA bloc," he claimed. While granting Kejriwal interim bail on Friday, the apex 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.
