BackAAP alleges conspiracy to topple govt; seeks action against Dikshit
Allegation comes after three Delhi MLAs threatened to withdraw support to minority government
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New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley were “conspiring" to topple the AAP government in Delhi, even as the city-state’s government sought action against former chief minister Sheila Dikshit over allegations she had regularized unauthorized colonies for political reasons.
“There has been a constant attempt to destabilize, defame and make the AAP government fall, both by the Congress and the BJP. Arun Jaitley, (Delhi BJP leader) Harsh Vardhan and Narendra Modi himself are busy engineering the fall of our government," Sanjay Singh, national executive member of the AAP, told reporters.
The allegation came a day after three legislators in Delhi—AAP rebel Vinod Kumar Binny, Shoaib Iqbal from Janata Dal (United) and independent member Rambeer Shokeen—threatened to withdraw support to the AAP minority government. On Monday, Iqbal and Shokeen did a U-turn, saying they will not go ahead with their threat.
“The BJP wants to crush the hopes that people have pinned to us," Singh said.
The AAP, whose government takes outside support from the Congress, has announced plans to launch a “pol khol" (expose) campaign against both the Congress and the BJP in Delhi. Also on Monday, Madan Lal, an AAP legislator, alleged that there have been attempts to “buy out" party legislators, including him, in order to destabilize the government.
“Rubbish claims by AAP. AAP’s alternative politics includes a fundamental right to falsehood and lies," Jaitley wrote on Twitter.
“Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that people should record while paying bribe to government servants. How is it then that his own MLA didn’t record this particular conversation? Why didn’t he record this conversation? AAP cannot make baseless allegations and get away with it. Is it a responsible way of handling government? Is this the alternative politics AAP has been talking about?" said Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP spokesperson. The Congress said AAP should order a probe into the charges it has made. “AAP is not only a party but also runs the government in Delhi. It should order a probe," Union parliamentary affairs minister and Congress party leader Kamal Nath told reporters on Monday.
Meanwhile, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government has written to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking action against Dikshit.
The President had sought comments from the Delhi government on a report by the Lokayukta in which justice Manmohan Sarin in November 2013 had ruled that Dikshit had granted provisional certificates for regularization of unauthorized colonies in 2008 in order to gain political mileage.
“They can recommend anything whatever they want but the truth remains that Lokayukta has also seen this complaint and has already given its opinion about it. So, the government can write to the President or any other authority on it," Haroon Yusuf, Congress legislative party leader in Delhi, said.
In a boost to the AAP government, its cabinet passed the anti-corruption Jan Lokpal Bill on Monday, according to a post by Kejriwal on Twitter.
PTI and Gyan Varma contributed to the story.
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