AAP party of cut, commission, corruption; Sisodia, Jain should have resigned earlier: BJP

PTI, Feb 28, 2023, 7:15 PM IST

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New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday described AAP as a party of ”cut, commission and corruption” and said its leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain should have resigned from the Cabinet much earlier when the graft allegations against them had come to light.

Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on Sunday evening in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy for 2021-22, while Jain is lodged in Tihar Jail in a money laundering case since May last year.

The ministers on Tuesday tendered their resignations to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, which have been accepted. Hitting out at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its national convener Kejriwal, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said people who claimed to be the ”flag bearers of the fight against corruption” have ensured governance that ”increases the number of alcohol users in Delhi”.

Without naming any party, Prasad said he thought cut and commission was the legacy of only one political party.

”But today, I must say that 3C-cut, commission and corruption also applies for Kejriwal’s party,” Prasad said and added that AAP leaders have defamed the anti-corruption agitation led by Anna Hazare.

”They should have resigned earlier. Jain has resigned several months after his arrest and Sisodia should have resigned at the time when the allegations against them came out,” the former law minister said while addressing a press conference here.

Describing the liquor scam case in Delhi as a ”fixed text book case of corruption”, Prasad said the BJP will raise the issue in every corner of the country. He said the Supreme court on Tuesday refused to ”grant any indulgence to one of the ”most prominent faces of the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare”. ”This clearly indicates the merit of Sisodia’s plea that the apex court refused to grant any relief,” Prasad said. The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain the bail plea of Sisodia, who is in CBI custody in connection with the excise policy case.

Sisodia is perhaps the only education minister in the country who is also a ”liquor minister”, the BJP leader said. On Kejriwal, Prasad said that during the Gujarat elections, he claimed that the Intelligence Bureau was reporting a big win for the AA, and on Monday, he claimed that the CBI was not in favour of Sisodia’s arrest. ”I am amazed at the number of lies spewed by Kejriwal for the commission from liquor,” he said.