When will Kejriwal resign?, asks BJP after court sends him to jail; points to ‘Nair-Atishi link’

New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) Hours after Arvind Kejriwal was sent to jail by a city court for 15 days, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday hurled a volley of charges on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its convenor over its morality and probity standards and questioned, ‘when will the Chief Minister resign?’

BJP spokespersons, in a press conference, also lambasted the INDIA bloc for rallying behind the Delhi Chief Minister, accused of looting public money in the now-scrapped liquor policy case.

Sudhanshu Trivedi slammed the Delhi CM for playing the victimhood card in the aftermath of the arrest and said that he is being tried in the case, based on ‘concrete evidence’.

“It’s the jurisprudence of the court to extend custody but it clearly raises questions on morality and constitutional integrity. Lalu Yadav resigned when he was about to quit but Kejriwal has gone a step ahead,” he said.

Shazia Ilmi, one of the AAP’s founding members, said that Kejriwal earlier betrayed the founding members and it was now the turn of new members like Atishi Marlena and Saurabh Bhardwaj.

Citing Kejriwal’s statements made to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), she said, “Delhi CM told the central agency that Vijay Nair didn’t report to him but to Atishi and Saurabh.”

Notably, Vijay Nair is the former communications-in-charge of AAP and also a key accused in the Delhi liquorgate. He was the middleman, who allegedly helped liquor mafias acquire licences for liquor shops in the capital.

Shazia also went all guns blazing on the INDIA bloc for rallying behind the AAP convenor, arrested on charges of corruption at the same Ramlila Maidan.

“It was the same ground where Kejriwal fasted for 13 days seeking action against the corrupt leaders including those in the INDIA bloc, now the same group has closed ranks and is demonstrating for him,” she told the press.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala also drew the attention of the press towards a ‘social media trend’, hinting at Atishi being made a scapegoat in the liquorgate, to save the AAP convenor.

Notably, Atishi Marlena, seen as the ‘likely successor’ of Arvind Kejriwal for the top post, holds the maximum number of portfolios in the Delhi government, some of which include Finance, PWD, Education and more.

--IANS

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