As crucial assembly elections in Delhi are nearing, both AAP and BJP leaders are leveling severe accusations against each other. Former deputy chief minister and AAP senior leader Manish Sisodia claimed that BJP has approached him with the offer to close all cases against him and also the Chief Minister’s post, if he agreed to join BJP.
In an interview to a news channel, he said that this offer was made before him when he was lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. He is contesting in the assembly elections from Jangpura constituency.
“Join the BJP, and we will break up AAP MLAs, we will make you Chief Minister,” Manisha said he was told. Otherwise, he alleged that the BJP threatened to put him behind bars for a prolonged period.
“The BJP gave me an ultimatum: leave Arvind Kejriwal or rot in jail. They already knew I was struggling. They knew my wife was sick, they knew my son was studying. This is their mechanism. They buy leaders from other parties who then go through BJP’s washing machine,” he claimed.
Asserting that all the allegations against him were false, Sisodia said he will never bow down before “conspirators and corrupt people”. Sisodia is among 15 people and entities named in an FIR registered by the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy.
“My reply to BJP — I am a descendant of Maharana Pratap and a Rajput. I am ready to get beheaded but can never bow down before conspirators and corrupt people. All the cases against me are false. Do whatever you want to do,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
He accused the BJP of systematically targeting opposition leaders who refused to align with their agenda, claiming, “The BJP has set up a factory to break up opposition parties. Those who don’t break are sent to jail.”
He has stressed that the case against him is an effort to stop the good work being done by CM Arvind Kejriwal-led dispensation and also to put obstacles in the path of the AAP chief who has emerged as an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.