Accept bribes from Cong, BJP but vote for AAP: Kejriwal to voters

 

New Delhi, Jan 18, 2015, Agencies: A day after being slapped with show-cause notice by Election Commission (EC) of India, AAP’s wannabe chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal seems to have put himself in a tight spot once again.

 

In a controversial remark, Kejriwal asked the voters to "fool" BJP and Congress by voting for AAP even after accepting "bribe money" from them while accusing the parties of "deceiving" the people for years.

 

"It’s election time. When people both from BJP and Congress come offering money, don’t refuse, accept... some have looted money from 2G, some have looted money from coal scam. And if any party does not show up, go to its office and take the amount saying we were waiting but you didn’t come," Kejriwal said amid cheers from the crowd.

 

The former Delhi Chief Minister was speaking at a rally at West Delhi’s Nawada area in support of AAP’s Uttam Nagar Assembly candidate Naresh Balyan.

 

"Take money from both the parties but vote for AAP. We will fool them this time. They have been deceiving us for the last 65 years. Now it’s our turn," he said.

 

While announcing the dates for Delhi assembly elections, the EC has expressed its concerns over possibilities of political parties trying to influence voters by bribing them. It has also appointed a task force to control the menace.

 

Kejriwal on Saturday received EC notice for accusing the BJP of inciting communal violence. The show-cause notice was issued based on the complaint filed by the BJP’s Delhi state chief Satish Upadhyay.

 

Kejriwal has been told to respond to the notice by Jan 20.

 

He also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that his Ramlila Maidan speech was a let down from which he had "high expectations".

 

"I had high expectations from the Prime Minister’s Ramlila Maidan rally speech. But it such a let down. He spent half the time branding me a Naxalite and criticising me for sitting in dharnas.

 

"This kind of politics is not good. Politics should rather be issued based," he said.

 

In an apparent reference to the recent religious conversion row and controversial remarks by certain BJP leaders and saffron outfits, the AAP supremo slammed BJP for "ditching" its electoral plank of development.

 

"They used to speak of development. But they have ditched development for (dharm parivartan) religious conversion. Now we also hear comments on Nathuram Godese’s temples, women wearing jeans," Kejriwal said.