AAP crisis
'No vacancy': Union Minister Hardeep Puri responds to Atishi's claim that BJP approached her
New Delhi/IBNS: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party "does not have any vacancy" hours after Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi claimed she had been approached with an offer to jump ship and "save my political career".
"...they threatened that if I don't switch (then) the Enforcement Directorate will arrest me," Atishi said this morning.
To this, Puri hit back with a reference to the alleged liquor policy scam that has shaken the AAP and the opposition INDIA bloc ahead of 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 said.
"We do not have any vacancy for a political activist like Atishi..." Puri said.
The Urban Development Minister's firm rejection came after Atishi said she had been approached to join the BJP. She said she was told the saffron party had "made up its mind on crushing everyone (in the Aam Aadmi Party)."
Addressing a press conference, Atishi, who is leading AAP's charge after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested in the excise policy case, said, "In the coming two months before the Lok Sabha elections, they will arrest four more AAP leaders. They will arrest me, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chadha."
Atishi said the BJP, which rules the Centre but not the national capital Delhi, had hoped Kejriwal's arrest would have "disarrayed and destroyed the Aam Aadmi Party".
"The BJP had hoped AAP's morale would be doomed," she added.
Kejriwal sent to judicial custody till Apr 15
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal was on Monday sent to judicial custody till April 15 by the Rouse Avenue Court in connection with the case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which had arrested Kejriwal on March 21, had asked for a 15-day judicial custody citing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s "non-cooperative behaviour".
Kejriwal arrested ahead of Indian general polls
Kejriwal has become the first serving Chief Minister to be arrested and is the third senior leader from the party to be arrested in connection with the Delhi liquor policy scam.
The arrest comes hours after a team from the ED questioned him at his residence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The arrest was made just weeks before India voted in the first phase of the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament) polls on April 19.
Several opposition parties, who are parts of the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bloc, rallied behind Kejriwal in a mega rally held at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on Sunday.
Speaking at the rally, Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal termed the Chief Minister as "a lion" and said, "The BJP has locked up Kejriwal. Bhagat Singh went to jail fighting the Britishers, Kejriwal went to jail fighting dictatorship."
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