New Delhi : Arvind Kejriwal today claimed BJP leaders had told him that Kiran Bedi, the party’s chief ministerial candidate for Delhi polls, was a “scapegoat” even as he charged that the senior leaders of the saffron outfit were plotting against his one-time India Against Corruption colleague. “Bedi is a scapegoat… Vijay Goel, Satish Upadhyay, Harsh Vardhan are plotting against her,” he told a TV channel.
Bedi and Kejriwal were part of anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare’s core team when he was leading his agitation to press for the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament. On the campaign trail for Delhi polls, Kejriwal attempted to woo the rural electorate by promising maximum infrastructure and amenities for them if Aam Aadmi Party was voted to power. However, he did not repeat or make any reference to the controversial remarks in which he asks voters to take bribes from BJP and Congress but vote for AAP. Those comments had invited a rap from Election Commission on Kejriwal, who was asked not to repeat them.
The AAP leader today addressed rallies in the Mundka, Trinagar, Shakur Basti and Shalimar Bagh constituencies. At the first rally of the day at Khanjawala in Mundka constituency, where he was accompanied by party leader Kumar Vishwas, Kejriwal said, “Previous governments have always ignored the villagers, leaving them to live in a precarious condition. Now, we have prepared a road map to upgrade your living standards.”
If “I (become) the chief minister, not even a single inch of your land would be taken away without your consent,” he said. Vishwas in his address, challenged Bedi to a public debate in front of the BJP headquarters. “I challenge Bedi to discuss issues with any of our leaders. I am even ready to debate with her in front of the BJP headquarters,” he said. Vishwas further said that many senior BJP leaders were “sulking”, which was going to be a big reason for the party’s debacle.
“‘Harsh’ (Hindi for happiness) is absent from Harsh Vardhan’s face. Jagdish Mukhi has become Jagdish ‘Dukhi’ (sad). Party has already snubbed Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay. Many more leaders are there in line who are unhappy with this ‘imported’ leader,” he said in a reference to Bedi, who recently joined BJP and was made its nominee for the top post in Delhi.
