After polls, BJP will remove Yogi Adityanath: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged on Saturday that BJP will send all top opposition functionaries to jail if they formed govt and will also end the careers of their own senior partymen to impose “dictatorship” in the country.
In a rousing speech at the party headquarters amidst loud sloganeering, a day after he was released on interim bail, AAP national convener said BJP had ended the political career of some of its own party functionaries and next in line was UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
“They ended the politics of Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shivraj Singh, Vasundhara Raje, (ML) Khattar, Raman Singh…I can give in writing that they will change the UP chief minister within two months if they win the Lok Sabha polls. They will finish Yogi Adityanath politically,” he alleged.
“They are going to launch a dangerous mission – one nation, one leader,” he added.
In his address that lasted a little over 20 minutes, Kejriwal said he was arrested to send out a message in the country that anyone can be put behind bars even if there was no case against that person.
Kejriwal said not only some of his own party colleagues, but also then Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and ministers of Trinamool Congress had been sent to jail in the past few months. If BJP won in the parliamentary elections, other opposition leaders like Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Tejashwi Yadav, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Uddhav Thackeray and others would be put behind bars, he warned.
“But I have good news. I spoke to a lot of poll experts and concluded that BJP was falling short of a majority and may not get more than 220-230 seats. INDIA alliance is forming govt at the Centre and AAP will be a part of it. We will get full statehood for Delhi,” Kejriwal said as people raised pro-AAP and anti-BJP slogans.
A big crowd had gathered at the AAP office on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg on Saturday afternoon to listen to Kejriwal, who spent 50 days in the custody of Enforcement Directorate and in Tihar Jail in the excise policy-linked money laundering case before Supreme Court gave him interim bail to campaign in the elections.
The party had pitched a tent in the small lawn at the office for Kejriwal’s address with a large number of people standing on the road outside. People were perched on walls and parapets at the party office to catch a glimpse of the CM.
Countering the saffron party’s question about INDIA bloc’s PM face, Kejriwal said Narendra Modi was turning 75 in Sept next year and retiring and he was seeking votes to make Amit Shah the next prime minister of the country.
Responding to the BJP’s demand for his resignation after his arrest, Kejriwal said he did not step down as chief minister because a conspiracy was hatched to finish his party. “The chief minister's post is not important for me. I stepped down after running the government for 49 days on the issue of ideology,” Kejriwal asserted.
“They thought that the party would be finished. But AAP is not just a party, it is a thought. The more they destroy, the more our party will progress,” he added.
Kejriwal said no one had expected that he would be able to come out in the middle of the elections, but it happened only because of people’s prayers and blessings of Lord Hanuman.
Accusing BJP of inducting “thieves and dacoits” into the party, Delhi CM said PM should learn from him how to fight corruption. “We sent the corrupt to jail and didn’t spare even our own ministers. They were sent to jail without the opposition and the media knowing about it,” he claimed.
The AAP chief said there were several occasions in the 4000-year-old history of the country when dictators emerged and tried to capture the country but people uprooted them. “Today, another dictator is trying to end democracy in India. I am fighting against it but I want the support of 140 crore people of India. I cannot do it alone, I am begging you for your support,” he said.