Arvind Kejriwal calls for trust vote in Delhi assembly on day of court summons

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday moved a confidence motion in the Delhi assembly, saying there was a need to show the people that the House has confidence in the council of ministers.

The motion was moved a day before Kejriwal was due to appear in the Rouse Avenue court in connection with a case filed by the Enforcement Directorate over the Delhi CM repeatedly skipping the agency’s summons.

On February 14, ED served its sixth summons to Kejriwal to appear before the agency on February 19. The agency moved the court after Kejriwal did not appear on February 2.The Rouse Avenue court subsequently summoned Kejriwal on February 17, calling for his personal appearance, while observing that the AAP national convener was “legally bound” to join the ED investigation..

Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said the House will debate the motion on Saturday. However, leader of opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri alleged that the business on Saturday was not mentioned the schedule announced earlier.

“A discussion on the confidence motion has been scheduled on Saturday when the Rouse Avenue court has summoned Kejriwal (on February 17) over skipping ED summons in liquor scam. The sitting of the House was not fixed for February 17 according to the earlier schedule. The CM has got a discussion on confidence motion scheduled on Saturday so that he can use this as an excuse to avoid appearance before the court,” Bidhuri said.

While moving the trust vote in the House on Friday, Kejriwal repeated his charge that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to poach Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs to topple his government.

“Some days ago, two MLAs (AAP) separately came to me and told me the same thing. They said that the BJP leaders had come to them and inform that CM Arvind Kejriwal will be arrested soon; they said that they have already contacted 21 AAP MLAs and (claimed that) they are ready to leave AAP; they are trying to contact others (AAP MLAs) as well. They said they will give ₹25 crore to each of them, and asked them to join the BJP. They promised that the BJP will field them in election (assembly) on BJP ticket. And if you want anything else, let us know. The MLAs told me that they refused the offer. Then we contacted our MLAs and found that the BJP had contacted seven MLAs. They have attempted to conduct one more Operation Lotus. But all 21 MLAs have refused according to what we have learned,” Kejriwal said while moving the confidence motion.

Talking about the Delhi excise policy case in which ED has been issuing summons to him, the Delhi chief minister said, “The so-called liquor scam is not a liquor scam. They do not want to conduct any investigation. We see that in other states they are toppling one after another government on the basis of false cases, their intention is to arrest.. they have arrested several AAP leaders… and topple the Delhi government. They know that they cannot win the assembly election in Delhi, so they want to topple the government and form their own government. Due to God grace and people’s faith, their attempts could not fructify.”

On January 27, the AAP chief alleged that the BJP had offered ₹25 crore each to seven AAP MLAs in an attempt to topple his government evoking sharp reactions from the BJP which termed the claim as “absurd and baseless”. On January 30, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva, leader of opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and North east Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari submitted a complaint to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora seeking an investigation into CM’s claims. On February 3 it triggered a political drama and slugfest after a crime branch team arrived at CM’s residence to hand in a notice to the CM in connection with the MLAs poaching allegations.

The AAP has 62 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi assembly whereas the BJP has only eight. .

Bidhuri said that Kejriwal had to move a confidence motion in the assembly despite having an overwhelming majority in the House, and “it shows that the CM has lost confidence”.

The ED wants to question the Delhi chief minister in connection with an alleged money laundering probe linked to ongoing investigations into the excise policy case. Kejriwal has skipped ED summons, calling them illegal and politically motivated.

Meanwhile, environment minister Gopal Rai moved a motion of thanks on LG’s address which was delivered in the House on Thursday marking the beginning of the budget session of the assembly. AAP MLAs spoke on the motion, highlighting the work of the Delhi government in education, health, social security, and other sectors.

“The central government of BJP tried its best to stop all the work of Delhi by bringing an ordinance to nullify the Supreme Court judgement and later made an Act to paralyze the Delhi government, and used federal agencies to stop the Delhi government’s work, even despite all these obstacles we are proud that the Delhi government is setting records of development every day despite obstacles,” Rai said, adding that he wants to thank the LG.

The LG had outlining the important policies, programmes and the work of AAP government in the fields of education, health, transport, social welfare, infrastructure, etc. As part of established parliamentary convention, the LG reads the speech prepared by the elected government to open the first sitting of the assembly in the new year.