NEW DELHI: Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi on Tuesday alleged she was offered to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) named her in the alleged Delhi excise policy case.
The central agency had told the special court on Monday that Vijay Nair – former media-incharge of the party – reported to Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj and not to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Solicitor General SV Raju had named the senior leaders during Arvind Kejriwal’s remand hearing before the special court of Kaveri Baweja.
Atishi said, “After the ED arrested the top four leaders of the party, they are now planning to put the next in-line leaders behind. They will now arrest me, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Raghav Chaddha.”
The agency in its remand application had submitted that National Treasurer ND Gupta in his statement had said that the National Convener Arvind Kejriwal appointed the state election in-charge to manage the election campaign and for the Goa elections in 2022, Durgesh Pathak was chosen.
The ED, however, has also submitted that Arvind Kejriwal had stated Gupta, an active member of the party and Political Action Committee (PAC) is “confused”.
He said the PAC decides the state election in-charge.
On Monday, she had posted on X that she will be doing an exposè. A very close associate of mine, she alleged, was told that she should join the BJP to secure herself from the arrest and save her future. “The BJP is plotting to arrest the next big four leaders of the party since the arrest of the top brass of the party was not enough. We were informed that a raid will be conducted at our residence followed by that summons will be issued and later they will be arrested.”
She further said that they will not be budged by their threats and leaders being arrested because more leaders will emerge and fight. “We will continue to save the constitution,” she concluded.
The AAP has maintained that Kejriwal will continue to be the chief minister no matter how long he stays behind bars.