Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal won the trust vote in the Delhi Assembly with 54 MLAs support moved by him in a show of strength after two of his MLAs alleged that the BJP was trying to poach them.
Delhi Assembly passed a motion of confidence through voice vote, 54 of 62 AAP MLAs were present during voting.
Kejriwal addressed the Delhi Assembly of the national capital over the confidence motion.
Addressing the House, Kejriwal attacked PM Modi and asked a question, does Modi want to crush Kejriwal?
The AAP convenor said that he has a majority in the House but this motion of confidence was needed because BJP was trying to poach his party MLAs.
Hitting out at Modi, Kejriwal said that his party will free the country from the BJP in the 2029 elections even if the BJP win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Further, the BJP has been claiming to be Ram Bhakt but they stopped medicines of poor people at the Delhi government’s hospital.
Attacking the BJP in the House, Kejriwal said the Modi government has been after him and they wanted to arrest him. After all this, BJP thought that AAP would die, adding that, but how will they arrest the thought behind the party? Kejriwal asked.
While addressing the House, the AAP MLA Rituraj Jha took a jibe at BJP and satirically remarked in Hindi, saying “Iss Desh Me Thanda Matlab Coca Cola Aur Gandi Rajneeti Matla BJP” (Cold means Coca Cola in the country and dirty politics means BJP).
After passing the confidence vote, Kejriwal said that no AAP MLAs defected, two MLAs were in jail, some were unwell and some were out of the station.
Earlier in the day, the AAP convenor also appeared before the Delhi court virtually after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) complaint for skipping all five summons in a liquor policy case. The court asked Kejriwal to appear before it physically on March 16.
Tabling the confidence of motion on Friday, Kejriwal alleged that two of his MLAs informed him that they were contacted by BJP members and offered Rs 25 crore each. Kejriwal further said that they were told by the BJP that the AAP government would be toppled and Kejriwal would be arrested soon.
The AAP chief also alleged that the case against him in the liquor case is baseless and their only motive is to topple the democratically formed government in Delhi. Kejriwal further charged on BJP, saying they know it can never win elections in Delhi and that’s the only reason that they have been using different tactics to remove the AAP government from Delhi.
Notably, this was the second time that the Kejriwal-led AAP government has sought a trust vote in the 70-member Assembly. Currently, the AAP has 62 MLAs while the BJP has eight MLAs.
Earlier on February 3, a Delhi Police crime branch team visited the official residence of Kejriwal for the second straight day. The police team reportedly visited the house to serve him a notice in connection with his claim that the BJP tried to poach AAP MLAs.
Kejriwal also claimed that he had been pressurised to join the BJP. He would not bend no matter what happens, Kejriwal said after laying the foundation stone of a government school in Delhi’s Rohini a few days back.