Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday termed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid at the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief minister Manish Sisodia as an attempt to tarnish the image of the party ahead of the polls in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
They also claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government is scared of the growing popularity of AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
Raghav Chadha, Rajya Sabha MP, said the action by the agency on their partymen was directly proportional to the growing popularity of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Arvind Kejriwal.
“To destroy the health model, the BJP government arrested our health minister, Satyender Jain. And now they are targeting our education model. That’s why Manish Sisodia is being raided by the CBI,” he said.
“CBI did not go to Gujarat, where so many people died after drinking spurious liquor. That is a dry state. A thousand crores of drugs were seized in Gujarat. They never took any action against that.” Chadha asked.
Senior party leader and Rajya MP Sanjay Singh said that the raid had nothing to do with the liquor policy. He said the CBI is being used to derail the Kejriwal government’s education and healthcare revolutions.
Singh said that the raid was a result of PM Modi’s angst seeing the progress of AAP and CM Kejriwal. “Kejriwal’s popularity has taken the whole nation by a storm since AAP won in Delhi and Punjab. The BJP is worried. It is trying to stop Kejriwal at all costs.”
“CM Kejriwal is connecting people across India with his mission ‘Make India No. 1’; PM Modi can bring out all his guns, but he won’t be able to stop Kejriwal now. If they actually care about any liquor policy, then why hasn’t the CBI-ED been sent after BJP leaders who were caught while illegally manufacturing spurious liquor?” he said.
Citing a front-page report published in the US publication New York Times, Singh said, “The New York Times, which called out Modi government’s COVID failures, has today published Dy CM Sisodia’s photo on its front page, appreciating the Delhi Model of Education. PM Modi should have been happy that at least one government is getting international recognition instead of being ridiculed, but his jealousy has led to a CBI raid on Dy CM Sisodia today,” Singh said.
The party spokesperson, Saurabh Bhardwaj, said, “It is sad that Manish Sisodia, who is the best education minister, is being raided by the agency. We knew it is going to happen because of the growing popularity of AAP and Kejriwal. In the coming days, more such raids will happen, and more of our ministers or leaders will be implicated by such agencies.”
Bhardwaj further said: “Today’s act of raiding our minister has proved that 2024 elections will happen between AAP and BJP. It will be Kejriwal vs Modi. ”
AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said, “Modi ji is scared of Kejriwal. We will make this country number one. The whole leadership of the BJP is trying to stop Kejriwal. We are not going to stop.”
Earlier in the morning, Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Today the world is praising Manish Sisodia as the best education minister, but the Centre is conducting a witch-hunt against him by sending the CBI.”
“We welcome the CBI with open arms. We will fully cooperate with them. There have been raids and investigations against us earlier too, but nothing came out of them. We’ll come out clear this time too,” the party convenor said.