A day after Arvind Kejriwal met Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, and Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister, at his residence on Wednesday, April 12, the BJP turned its attention to the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday, April 13. In a press conference by BJP, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, was dubbed the “Natwarlal of politics” by the BJP. The party claimed he had provided the most precise illustration of “political conversion” by joining forces with the “coalition of corrupts”.
Shehzad Poonawala, the national spokesperson for the BJP, said he said, “It is strange to see the political conversion and U-Turn of India’sIndia’s political Natwar Lal and Pinocchio named Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal. This party was born from the womb of India Against Corruption (IAC), and now they have become Justification for Corruption (JFC).
From being followers of Anna Hazare, now they are followers of Lalu Prasad Yadav. He further mentioned the old tweets of Arvind Kejriwal made in 2011, 2013 and 2015. He said, “Arvind Kejriwal, who once called Lalu Yadav an ‘icon of corruption’, is hugging him and his son Tejashwi Yadav, and joining the ‘BBC’ or ‘Bhrastachar Bachao Coalition’ (save corruption coalition),”. Poonawala asked, “He used to make statements against Lalu Prasad Yadav now. What has changed since then?” and further added, “Now the family of Lalu Prasad family, which is seeped in corruption, is embraced by him. Democracy is an excuse for them all they care about is how to save their names from corruption”.
Poonawala asked a series of questions about the support given by Arvind Kejriwal to Lalu Yadav and asked, “If prior to 2014 Lalu family was corrupt even before convictions took place how are they suddenly not corrupt after several convictions? How are you giving a degree of brutal honesty to the Lalu family now? What is your relationship with their family?”. He added, “Is this the same “degree of brutal honesty” you have given Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia, who are not getting relief for months from the courts? Who has been labelled as cheaters and architects of liquor scams by courts?”. Poonawala tried to question the credibility of Kejriwal & the leaders of the Bihar government.
However, Kejriwal appreciated Kumar’s initiative and assured Aam Aadmi Party’s “complete support”. A few hours before meeting Arivind Kejriwal, the Bihar leaders met with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge as part of Nitish Kumar’s initiative to bring together opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Poonawala, in his statements, tried to draw the media’s attention towards the ongoing political forging of the Opposition and took a jibe at them by saying that they are not even united on their political grounds. He said, “There was a strange situation that developed in Delhi. Someone whose party is not united- namely Rahul Gandhi- whose party is in Tukde Tukde from Rajasthan to Chhattisgarh, from Karnataka to Maharashtra – from Gehlot to Pilot, from DK to Siddharamiah is advocating and extolling about unity. Another gentleman who is fast losing all relevance in Bihar and has been relegated to third spot in Bihar- namely Nitish Kumar – together with Rahul are hankering for preservation, relevance and unity”.
Poonawala said that the birth of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition was for the sake of power. He argued, “MVA birth was not on issues of conviction, but for sake of power, on the platform of contradictions and conveniences, and hence these contradictions keep playing out, and this alliance was headed for complete collapse and confusion. Ajit Pawar is slamming Patole and vice versa. None of them can see eye to eye on any issues of national or state importance but they are together merely to oppose one party and ideology”.
It would be interesting to see the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the progress of the ongoing corruption cases in AAP & RJD.
