Days after the Chandigarh mayoral election, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that if it can "rig" the mayoral polls, it could go to any extent in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The AAP convenor, Kejriwal, was addressing the workers at the party's office in the National Capital. The demonstration was planned in front of the BJP headquarters, a few hundred metres away on the DDU Marg, but AAP members could not reach there because of heavy police deployment and barricading.
The Delhi CM said that the world's biggest party was caught on camera "stealing" votes in the Chandigarh mayoral polls. The elections for the posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor, and deputy mayor were held on Tuesday, and the BJP won all of them, defeating the Congress-AAP alliance.
"In the last few years, we had heard that BJP rigs polls. They tamper with EVMs, get names of voters deleted from voter lists, but never was any evidence found. They were caught red-handed in Chandigarh stealing votes," he alleged as quoted by news agency PTI.
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"If they can indulge in such irregularities in the Chandigarh mayoral polls, what would they be doing in Lok Sabha and assembly elections. They can sell the country for power but we will not allow them to do it. We have to save democracy and country," he said.
Earlier, the Delhi Chief Minister skipped the fifth summons from the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor scam. Kejriwal and his party have called the summons illegal.
The BJP, however, accused the Delhi CM of running away from the investigative agency.
"Arvind Kejriwal, if there is nothing to hide...then why are you not presenting yourself before the ED and other agencies? You are the same Kejriwal who, under Anna Hazare's tutelage, said that first there should be resignation and then investigation. Today you refuse to cooperate with investigation. You say that these are all politically motivated, as if doing 'bhrashtachar' is your 'shishtachar'...How long will you play this victimhood card?...This is the 'charitra' of INDI alliance, that the only thing that binds them is commission and corruption, not a mission or vision" BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said.
(With input from agencies)