NEW DELHI: After a Delhi court dropped charges against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case, he came out all guns blazing against the BJP. He challenged the party to hold fresh polls in the national capital, claiming that if the ruling party won over 10 seats, he would quit politics.
Kejriwal said that the BJP knew that it could not defeat AAP, so it hatched a conspiracy. He said, “For the past four years, the BJP has used the word ‘liquor scam’ extensively. But today, our justice system delivered a historic judgment. I want to sincerely thank the judiciary and the learned judge for this decision.” Manish Sisodia called the decision a reaffirmation of constitutional values. “Despite all the attempts by BJP and all their agencies to prove us dishonest, today it has been proven that Arvind Kejriwal-Manish Sisodia are staunchly honest,” he said.
The BJP, however, said that although the court verdict cited a “lack of evidence”, the electorate in the national capital had already delivered its own “political verdict” in the last Assembly election.
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi described the decision as a “technical matter” and said the party would issue a “structured response”. Trivedi claimed that hundreds of cellphones and SIM cards, which were potential evidence in the case, had been destroyed.
The Congress, on the other hand, hinted at a fixed match between the BJP and the AAP. Congress leader Pawan Khera said on X that the elections are coming, so the script is entirely predictable. “There will be a sudden surge in cases against Congress leaders, @PChidambaram_IN ji is being dragged back into the headlines again, because elections are due in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, the proceedings against their ‘convenient allies’ in the Aam Aadmi Party and others will quietly fizzle out in view of the Gujarat and Punjab elections,” Khera wrote.