Delhi Assembly begins debate on confidence motion proposed by Chief Minister Kejriwal

PTI, Feb 17, 2024, 11:43 AM IST

The Delhi Assembly on Saturday initiated a discussion on the motion of confidence brought by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who alleged that the BJP tried to poach AAP MLAs to topple his government.

Starting the discussion, the AAP’s Kasturba Nagar MLA Madan Lal alleged that the BJP was persistently trying to ”fail” and ”paralyse” the Kejriwal government — either by poaching party MLAs or interfering in its workings.

Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the lone opposition representative in the House following the suspension of BJP members for the session, was not present when the discussion began.

This is the third motion of confidence of the Kejriwal government in the last three years. It comes amid the AAP’s claims that the BJP wanted to break the party by offering money to its MLAs and toppling its government in Delhi.

The previous confidence motions came in August 2022 and March 2023, amid AAP allegations that the BJP was carrying out ”Operation Lotus” to poach its MLA.

The AAP has an overwhelming majority in the Delhi Assembly, with 62 MLAs in the 70-member House. The opposition BJP has eight MLAs, of whom seven are currently suspended.

Tabling the motion of confidence on Friday, Kejriwal said, ”Two MLAs had come to me saying they were contacted by BJP members offering them Rs 25 crore each. They were told that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be arrested and the government will be toppled.” ”They were also told that the BJP is in touch with 21 MLAs. They have made multiple attempts to approach our MLAs under ‘Operation Lotus’. Even this time, our MLAs refused to budge,” he had added. Kejriwal said the AAP checked with all its MLAs after these claims and found that seven of its legislators were approached but none of them accepted the offer.

He said the BJP knows it can never win elections in Delhi and that is why it is using different tactics to topple the AAP government.

”To show that none of our MLAs have defected, I present this resolution, ‘The House expresses its trust in the Cabinet’,” he had said.