MLA takes Kejri’s blessings to fight him

New Delhi: Even as

Aam Aadmi Party MLA

Kapil

Mishra

lodged three complaints with CBI against his party convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, he sought the latter’s blessings in case he had to fight and win an election again should the party divest him of his assembly membership.

After meeting CBI officials, the former minister elaborated that the three complaints he had filed “related to the Rs 50-crore land deal involving a relative of Arvind Kejriwal… the Rs 2-crore cash exchange between Kejriwal and power minister Satyendar Jain… and against five AAP functionaries who misused party funds for undertaking foreign trips”.

The Karawal Nagar MLA declared he would sit on an indefinite hunger strike from Wednesday if the party did not publicly disclose details of the overseas tours of the five members, their passport details, the places they had visited and the activities they undertook.

Before Mishra left for the CBI office, he wrote a letter to Kejriwal in which he said, “I am launching a crusade against Arvind Kejriwal from whom I have learnt how to fight against corruption.” He wrote that in the last 24 hours he had “received 211 complaints of corruption against party and AAP-led government through emails”. “My heart is heavy, but it is impossible to remain silent,” Mishra said, adding that he had substantial evidence to submit to CBI.

Mishra also claimed in his letter that plans were being made to remove him as an MLA, but claimed that he was not bothered about losing his membership of the legislature assembly. “I am not bothered about it. If you have any morality, resign from your seat and fight election against me either from my constituency or your constituency New Delhi. You have the entire team with you, I am alone. But let’s face elections,” he dared Kejriwal. Ironically, however, the ousted minister sought Kejriwal’s blessings. “I need your blessings for victory,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mishra attended the special session of the Delhi assembly expecting AAP leaders or Kejriwal to take up for discussion the allegations he had made. He was visibly disappointed not to find any mention of his charges.

The former minister said that the demonstration in the House on how voting machines could be tampered with was a diversionary tactic. “They are trying to divert attention from the allegations I have levelled against them,” Mishra accused. “The drama was staged to shield Kejriwal.”

Critical of his party’s focus on EVMS, he sarcastically said, “They will soon tell people there's a fault in their finger which causes it to press the wrong button.”

On Monday, Mishra submitted documents to the Anti-Corruption Branch accusing Kejriwal of delaying the probe into the Rs 400-crore water tanker scam.