Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal leads AAP protest, but Congress, BJP hit back

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to the streets on Sunday accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of having launched “Operation Jhaadu” to crush the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Kejriwal was flanked by key lieutenants such as Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha, and Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi. AAP's march towards the BJP headquarters in the national capital was stopped midway.

On Sunday, addressing party workers and leaders ahead of the march, Kejriwal said: "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is worried about the rise of the AAP. The party has risen too fast. They have started 'Operation Jhaadu' to crush the party. In the coming time, our bank accounts will be frozen and we will be brought on the road since our office will also be taken away.”

 

The protest took place a day after Delhi Police arrested Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar on charges of assaulting AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal. A court on Sunday morning sent Kumar to five days of police custody.  A Delhi Police team, meanwhile, collected CCTV digital video recorder from Kejriwal’s residence to potentially get the footage of the alleged assault on Maliwal on May 13.

With the AAP leadership accusing Maliwal of working at the behest of the BJP, people within the party have questioned efforts to malign her, according to sources. On Sunday, the BJP asked Kerjiwal to “break his silence” on the issue, while the AAP also faced criticism from leaders of ally Congress.

Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit reminded the AAP that Kumar was in police custody because of a law that it had demanded in the wake of the ‘Nirbhaya’ rape incident in December 2012, and Delhi's ruling party's stand doubting Maliwal’s version of events betrayed its hypocrisy on the issue. The AAP had protested in the aftermath of the ‘Nirbhaya’ incident, and a law was enacted where in cases of sexual crime or violence against women, the onus will be on the accused to prove his innocence.

The controversy over Kumar allegedly assaulting Maliwal has left the AAP leadership shaken,  according to people privy to the development. The party is been made aware that it faced an uncertain future — possibly even an internal power tussle — once Kejriwal returned to jail on June 1, according to his bail terms. This would especially be the case if the party were to perform poorly in the Lok Sabha polls, they said. Reacting to the AAP protest, Maliwal said her party colleagues once sought justice for ‘Nirbhaya’ but today they were supporting a person accused of assaulting her.

Kejriwal CM, who is out on interim bail in the excise policy case, had said on Saturday that he and other AAP leaders would go to the BJP headquarters on May 19 "so that the prime minister can send anyone he wishes to jail".
 

Kejriwal and AAP leaders’ march from their party office to that of the BJP’s national headquarters in the national capital — both are located metres away from each other on the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg — was reminiscent of the Delhi CM’s sit-in protest near the route of the Republic Day Parade in January 2013, where he had questioned the Centre’s control over Delhi Police. That protest had Kejriwal face accusations of being an “anarchist” since he was protesting while holding a constitutional post.