NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched a new campaign on Tuesday, accusing the “BJP of poaching” leaders accused of corruption and offering “to drop the charges” if they agreed to join the party.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, during the launch of the campaign,‘the BJP washing machine’, alleged that the charges against former Congress leader and BJP’s Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, senior NCP leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and ex-Congress leader and BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan, were dropped after they joined or supported the BJP.
The opposition parties often use the word “washing machine” to target the BJP over inducting people like Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan, and Himanta Biswa Sarma, who were facing corruption charges.
Demonstrating how the machine works, Delhi Cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the BJP had run a campaign for six months alleging Himanta Biswa Sarma was involved in the Saradha scam.
“But then he was inducted in the BJP and all his sins were washed away,” he charged. “After getting washed in the BJP washing machine, the ED, CBI no longer bothers them,” the senior AAP leader alleged.
He claimed that those leaders who reject the proposal to join the BJP are either harassed by the central probe agencies or put behind bars.
“On the other hand, when Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, who improved the education and health systems in Delhi, did not succumb to their pressure, the BJP and their agencies fabricated cases against them and sent them to jail,” the Delhi cabinet minister alleged. Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP-led central government is misusing probe agencies of political gains.
“Maharashtra’s former CM Ashok Chavan was accused in the Adarsh Society scam. The society was for the heroes and widows of soldiers martyred in the Kargil War. But the ownership rules were violated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had targeted him. But today he is in the BJP,” he alleged.
Delhi minister Gopal Rai, who was also present, said, “The BJP and PM Modi say that they are fighting this election to end corruption. But the truth of this claim is somewhat different."