Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of plotting an attack on him the previous day and claimed that the people of Delhi will vote against them. A man slapped Kejriwal during a roadshow in the Moti Nagar area in New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday, prompting the Aam Aadmi Party to accuse the BJP of orchestrating the “cowardly act”.
“I do not think any chief minister in Indian history has been targeted like this,” Kejriwal said during a press conference on Sunday. “Delhi is the only state where the security of the chief minister is the ‘BJP’s [Centre’s] responsibility. If there is attack on me then it is the BJP’s responsibility.”
The Delhi chief minister said that a ninth attack rules out the possibility of it being the result of a security lapse. “My fault is that we have done so much of work in four years,” claimed Kejriwal. The chief minister claimed that his assailant’s wife had said that he is a Prime Minister Narendra Modi supporter and that he could not stand Kejriwal’s criticism of Modi.
“The attacks on me are an attack on Delhi’s public, on their elected chief minister,” Kejriwal said, while adding that anyone who criticises Modi or the government gets false cases registered against them. “This is the sign of a dictator’s character,” Kejriwal said.
Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia shared a video of the purported wife of the attacker who claimed that her husband is a Modi supporter. “It is possible that after the BJP Delhi Police’s interrogation of the attacker, he will claim that the woman is not his wife,” Sisodia said in a tweet.
On Saturday, the Delhi Police had said that a preliminary inquiry had indicated that the attacker was an Aam Aadmi Party supporter, PTI reported. Delhi Police public relations officer Anil Mittal had said that an inquiry was ordered to find out how the attacker was allowed to be in the reception/proximate group. The police have registered an FIR against a person named Suresh for slapping Kejriwal.
Last year, on November 27, the caretaker of a mosque was arrested after he was caught carrying a live bullet to a public meeting at Kejriwal’s home. The week before that, Kejriwal was attacked with chilli powder outside his office in the state secretariat.
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