Delhi: Trust motion moved as AAP-LG rancour increases

NEW DELHI: To prove that his party MLAs and ministers were “hardcore honest” and can’t be poached by offering money and positions, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday moved a “confidence motion” in the Delhi Assembly.
Kejriwal said bringing such a motion was important to show that BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ may have been successful in other states but failed miserably in Delhi. The chief minister alleged that the BJP tried to topple his government in the Capital by poaching 40 legislators of Aam Aadmi Party.
In the 70-member Delhi Assembly, AAP has 62 MLAs while BJP has eight. Voting on the “confidence motion” is likely to take place on Tuesday.
Moving the motion, Kejriwal said the current government at the Centre was “most corrupt” in 75 years as it was “buying MLAs” and “waiving loans of his billionaire friends” by imposing taxes on basic eatables and increasing fuel prices in the country.
The AAP government had earlier alleged that the BJP was trying to lure away AAP MLAs by offering them Rs 20 crore each. Accusing the saffron party of toppling governments in several states, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Bihar, Kejriwal alleged at some places the saffron party had paid Rs 50 crore each to “buy MLAs”.
“They say that you are against corruption, but you are buying MLAs. This is the most corrupt (central) government in 75 years. You will face the curse of the poor people. In the next 15 days, petrol and diesel prices will go up and they will try to topple the Jharkhand government,” the Delhi CM said.
The AAP national convener blamed inflation on high taxes imposed by the central government, adding that if the government reduced taxes, the prices of all commodities will immediately come down.
“Even curd, lassi, wheat and honey have been taxed. This is something which didn't happen in the last 75 years and even under British rule. They are using this money to waive loans of their billionaire friends,” Kejriwal alleged, adding that the issue of price rise will be solved if the Centre recovers the loans of its corporate friends that it has waived. “The central government recently gave a statement that it has written off debt worth Rs 10 lakh crores of its trillionaire friends in the past five years…They are sucking people's blood by imposing taxes but are not spending it for public good like construction of schools and hospitals,” he said.
Reacting to a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report on construction of classrooms and toilets in Delhi government schools, the Delhi CM said the BJP was now trying to shift focus from the fake liquor scam to education after it failed to find anything wrong in the excise policy.
“The BJP is now saying that the AAP government has constructed more toilets. Yes, we constructed more toilets in government schools for our daughters. What wrong did we do? They did not find anything in the (CBI) raid but they will still arrest (deputy chief minister Manish) Sisodia. Now the excise case is over, so classrooms are in focus,” Kejriwal said.
Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena had last week sought a report from the Delhi chief secretary over a delay of more than two-and-half years in acting on the CVC report which allegedly found gross irregularities and procedural lapses in execution of the projects.