NEW DELHI: The AAP appeared to have gone on an overdrive organising press conferences throughout the day on Friday. The media briefings by top leaders of the party began as early as 10 am and continued in a quick succession for the next three hours. The common thread in all the pressers was the fear over “impending arrest of CM Arvind Kejriwal.”
This came amid reports of the AAP-Congress seat-sharing pact for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. AAP leaders said they were not going to be cowed by the ED and CBI threats to arrest their leader Arvind Kejriwal. These threats, the party leaders said, were being issued following seat-sharing agreement with Congress.
Cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, party national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak and senior AAP leader and cabinet minister Atishi maintained that they are not going to be intimidated by “threats.”
The AAP leaders said that even if the government arrested Kejriwal, the alliance with Congress would stay. Pathak said: “A message is being sent to us that ‘leave the INDIA alliance, otherwise we will arrest Kejriwal’. We’d like to tell the BJP that the day you arrest the CM, there will be a tsunami in the entire country and all your bets will go wrong, because this time you are facing Kejriwal.”
Bharadwaj said that the party has received information that the CBI will send a notice under Section 41A of the CrPC and Kejriwal will be arrested within two-three days. “The BJP is nervous because in the states where AAP and Congress will contest together, its problems will increase.”
Atishi said that the Central government has understood that it will not be able to get Kejriwal arrested by the ED. “That’s why now the CBI has been unleashed,” she said.