New Delhi, March 1
Powered by the resignations of top Delhi ministers over corruption charges, the BJP is all set to prime its anti-graft agenda as the top poll plank ahead of six pending state elections in 2023 followed by the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The 18th General Election scheduled for next year would be key for the ruling BJP, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a consecutive third term at the Centre, a feat previously achieved only by late PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
Buoyed by initial setbacks to AAP, the BJP on Wednesday demanded the resignation of top opposition leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying he occupied a constitutional post and could destroy the evidence if he continued.
“Pawns have gone but what about the kingpin who ordered the Delhi excise policy implementation? When will CM Kejriwal resign to enable a fair probe considering his own PA allegedly destroyed four mobile phones in the past?” asked BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia.
The BJP sought Kejriwal’s ouster on two points—“One, the CM chaired the February 5, 2021 Delhi cabinet meeting which decided to institute a group of ministers consisting of Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Kailash Gahlot to examine the expert committee report on Delhi excise policy and give recommendations; two, when the GOM presented its report (which allegedly favoured the South lobby in lieu of Rs 100 cr kickbacks to AAP) on March 22, 2021, it was Kejriwal who ordered its immediate implementation.”
“The needle of suspicion repeatedly points to the CM. Manish aur Satyendar toh jhanki hai. Arvind Kejriwal abhi baaki hai. No one is above the law,” quipped Bhatia.
BJP sources privately said the Supreme Court’s denial of relief to Sisodia yesterday and the turn of events in the case had further strengthened the party’s resolve to hammer corruption as a major election plank.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has personally urged BJP cadres to go after the corrupt “unapologetically in their mass outreach events”.
In fact in his National Youth Day address 2021, the PM had questioned the public glorification of corruption convicts asking if this was what the political class wanted the youth to inherit. More lately,President Droupadi Murmu signalled the Government’s anti-corruption pitch when in his first address to Parliament after assuming the top constitutional post, she said, “corruption is the biggest enemy of democracy and social justice”.
The President had hailed a rising social consciousness against sympathy for the corrupt.
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