Kejriwal claims Centre trying to arrest AAP Gujarat co-incharge Raghav Chadha

NEW DELHI, (PTI): Preparations are underway to arrest Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha since he was appointed as the party’s co-incharge of political affairs in Gujarat, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed on Friday.

Kejriwal, however, did not specify which agency was working on the alleged plan to arrest Chadha and on what charges.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the BJP wanted to prevent its defeat in Gujarat by getting AAP leaders arrested, claiming that people of the state wanted to give their mandate to Kejriwal this time.

Chadha, a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, put up a brave face and said he was neither afraid of going behind bars or even facing death sentence. The BJP has lost sleep seeing the growing support base of the AAP in Gujarat, he claimed.

Chadha, who is credited with playing a significant role in the AAP’s victory in the assembly elections in Punjab earlier this year, was recently appointed as co-incharge of the party’s political affairs in Gujarat where elections are due this year.

”We are hearing that these people will arrest Ragav Chadha now since he has been appointed as co-incharge of Gujarat and he has started participating in poll campaigns in Gujarat,” Kejriwal, the AAP’s national convenor, said in a tweet in Hindi.

”In which case they will (arrest) and what will be the allegations, these people are working on these points at present,” he added.

Kejriwal’s claim comes after the CBI arrested the party’s media communications in-charge Vijay Nair in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy ”scam” on Tuesday.

”The BJP wasted 27 years of the people of Gujarat. Neither opened good schools nor hospitals (in the state). Be it youth wandering in search of jobs or farmers, cow keepers or rickshaw pullers, everyone now wants to give a chance to Arvind Kejriwal,” Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi following Kejriwal’s claim.

By getting AAP leaders arrested, the BJP wants to prevent its defeat in Gujarat, he alleged.

On his part, Chadha tweeted, ”Gujarat is demanding change and the BJP has lost its sleep seeing the Aam Aadmi Party marching forward each day. ”We are followers of Bhagat Singh — neither afraid of your prison walls nor of the hanging noose. Long live the revolution.” On Wednesday, Kejriwal slammed the BJP-led Centre over Nair’s arrest and asked his party workers and leaders to be ready to go to jail, saying anyone from AAP could now be arrested on false charges as the BJP was scared of losing Gujarat.

”They are going to arrest Sisodia next week,” he had claimed.

Kejriwal also defended Nair and said he was just a ”small worker” of the AAP and that he had nothing to do with the excise policy.

The Delhi chief minister alleged that the CBI arrested Nair following several rounds of questioning over the past few days after he refused to buckle under their pressure to give a false statement against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to implicate the senior AAP leader in the alleged excise ”scam”.

Nair was arrested also because he was engaged in preparing the AAP’s communications strategy to drive the party’s poll campaign in Gujarat after the elections in Punjab earlier this year, Kejriwal alleged. (PTI)