NEW DELHI: Senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Gopal Rai said his party will file complaints of corruption on the Rafale fighter jet deal and Sahara-Birla papers case against Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the soon to be constituted Lokpal.“The Aam Aadmi Party will file complaints of corruption against the Prime Minister in the Rafale fighter jets case and the Sahara-Birla diaries. There are questions that why it took five years for the ‘chowkidaar’ (read, PM Modi) to appoint a Lokpal. It is a matter of shame for the prime minister that it took him this long for its appointment,” the AAP leader told the media.
Retired Supreme Court judge Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose is tipped to become the country’s first Lokpal.
“What is very strange is that the Lokpal movement saw many BJP leaders on the stage who promised a strong Lokpal, but after their government was formed at the Centre in May 2014, the BJP forgot about its promise to the country,” he said.
The AAP leader wondered what took the government so long to appoint the Lokpal. “With big proclamations of ‘Na Khaunga, Na Khaane Doonga’, why did it take the Modi government five years to appoint a Lokpal, which they had promised before 2014 elections,” Rai asked.
Senior Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge has also dubbed the appointment of first Lokpal an election gimmick, asking why did the Centre suddenly made the appointment ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Rai claimed the AAP waited long “enough” for the Congress and now there was no question of taking back its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
The party on Sunday named its candidates for all the seven seats in Delhi.“We waited enough for the Congress but there was no formal communication from them. With the election so close, we cannot waste our time. We don’t want to spend even a single second thinking about the alliance now. We’ve announced our last candidate for Delhi and now there is no possibility that we will roll back any of our candidates. All our seven candidates will contest,” he said, adding Congress was not serious about Delhi.
Did Sheila write to Rahul?
Asked if Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit has written to party president Rahul Gandhi on the issue of allying with the AAP, senior leader Rajesh Lilothia said, “We write to him (Rahul) often but what we write cannot be shared with the media.”