Kejriwal to table confidence motion in assembly today

The Delhi Assembly's special session on Monday is likely to witness a noisy showdown between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party as a trust vote proposed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be tabled in the House.

IMAGE: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal speaks during a special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly in New Delhi on August 26, 2022. Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia is also seen. Photograph: PTI Photo

In a blistering attack on the BJP, Kejriwal on Friday alleged that the opposition party's 'Operation Lotus' to topple his government failed as it could not poach any of the AAP MLAs.

The AAP national convener also alleged that the BJP had targeted 40 AAP MLAs and offered Rs 20 crore to each of them to switch sides.

"I want to bring a Motion of Confidence in the assembly so that it can be proved in front of the people of Delhi that the BJP's 'Operation Lotus Delhi' has become 'Operation Kichad'," Kejriwal had said.

The BJP's fight is not against corruption and its 'Operation Lotus' is a method of grabbing power by deceit, he had said.

The BJP, all of whose eight MLAs were marshalled out of the House for the day on Friday, hit back, accusing Kejriwal of using the assembly for fanning political propaganda and indulging in drama to divert people's attention from the liquor "scam" of his government.

BJP leaders alleged that Kejriwal has been making claims about alleged attempts to poach AAP MLAs since his party contested the Delhi assembly elections in 2013.

The AAP has 62 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, while the BJP has eight.

The AAP's claims about the BJP's alleged 'Operation Lotus' come amid the latter relentlessly targeting the ruling party in the wake of a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged irregularities in the Delhi government's now-scrapped Excise Policy 2021-22.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the excise portfolio and is an accused in the FIR registered by the CBI, had also claimed that he was offered the chief minister's post by the BJP for switching sides.

Sisodia's residence and office at the Delhi Secretariat were raided by the CBI last week in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy.