On Tuesday, Atishi alleged that she received a message from the BJP, offering her a choice: join their party or confront potential arrest by the ED.
Union Minister Hardeep Puri stated on Tuesday night that the Bharatiya Janata Party “does not have any vacancy,” hours after Atishi, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, revealed she had received an offer to leave the party and “save my political career.” The senior AAP leader said this morning, “…they threatened that if I don’t switch, then the Enforcement Directorate will arrest me.”
In response, Mr. Puri brought up the alleged liquor policy scandal that rocked the AAP and the opposition INDIA alliance in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election. “At a time when the entire AAP is embroiled in the liquor scam, we will not create trouble for ourselves by accepting her in our party,” he added.
“We do not have any vacancy for a political activist like Atishi…” Mr Puri said.
“First, they imprisoned Satyendra Jain, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and now Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with every other member of the AAP leadership. Four more AAP leaders are expected to be arrested by the BJP in the following two months. They’re going to arrest Raghav Chadha, Durgesh Pathak, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and me,” she declared.
Over the past few months, there has been a noticeable increase in tension between the AAP and the BJP, especially since central investigative agencies started looking into the suspected Delhi liquor excise policy scandal.
Last February, former Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia was taken into custody and has since remained in jail.
In October, Mr. Singh was arrested on money laundering charges linked to the alleged scam. After spending six months behind bars without a trial, he was granted bail earlier today.
In a separate case, Mr. Jain, Delhi’s former Health Minister, faced arrest as well.
However, the most significant arrest occurred on March 21 when Chief Minister Kejriwal, labeled as the “kingpin” by the ED, was apprehended following the Delhi High Court’s denial of protection from arrest.
Additionally, the Union Minister claimed that Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was being “launched.”
She claimed that the BJP believed that after Mr. Kejriwal’s detention, the AAP would split. “But after the rally on Sunday, BJP thinks the arrest of four leaders was not enough,” she stated. However, she said, “We are Kejriwal’s soldiers,… won’t be cowed by BJP’s threats.” She claimed to have intimate knowledge that the ED may raid her home and the homes of her family before detaining her.
