NEW DELHI: CM Arvind Kejriwal on Friday moved a confidence motion in the Assembly, a day before he is scheduled to appear before a city court for ignoring five summonses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the excise policy case.
The discussion on the motion will be held on Saturday. AAP is set to win the trust vote comfortably as it has 62 MLAs while the opposition BJP has eight, seven of whom have been suspended for the rest of the session for interrupting Lt -Governor V K Saxena’s speech in the Assembly on Thursday.
The ED has already sent its sixth summons to Kejriwal asking him to appear on Monday for questioning in connection with the scam. Speaking in the Assembly, Kejriwal reiterated that there was no scam in the excise policy. He alleged that attempts were being made to poach AAP MLAs and topple his government by registering false cases and arresting its leaders one after another.
Tabling the motion, Kejriwal said that he wants to show how BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ has failed in Delhi. A few operatives recently approached seven AAP MLAs asking them to join the BJP for which they will receive `25 crore and an election ticket, he alleged. All AAP MLAs rejected the offer, he added.
Leader of the opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that he was surprised that Kejriwal was tabling a confidence motion alleging the BJP was trying to poach his MLAs. So far, he has not given any evidence to the police, which is probing the matter. The police have already requested him to provide proof to substantiate the charges, he said.
Kejriwal has to appear before the court on Saturady, which last week said that he was “legally bound” to respond to ED’s summonses in person and that his failure to do so is prima facie an offence under Section 174 of IPC. The ED alleges that the excise policy was tweaked to siphon funds for AAP leaders and the party.