Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sailed through the trust vote in the Assembly on Thursday after the AAP chief alleged that BJP was trying to poach its MLAs to topple the government. There was no vote against the confidence motion as three BJP MLAs Vijender Gupta, Abhay Verma and Mohan Singh Bisht were marshalled out of the Assembly following an argument with Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla, PTI reported. The rest of the five BJP MLAs walked out in protest.
Speaking in the Assembly after confidence motion was passed, Kejriwal said a "fake case" was filed against Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and the CBI failed to find anything in its probe.
"AAP's vote share has gone up by 4 per cent in Gujarat after CBI raid against Sisodia. It will increase by 6 per cent if he is arrested," PTI quoted Kejriwal as saying.
Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will to polls later this year. The AAP has launched a campaign blitzkrieg in Gujarat to take on the ruling BJP and made several promises like Rs 1,000 monthly allowance to women.
"We brought a confidence motion in the Delhi Assembly to prove that Operation Lotus will fail. None of our MLAs have switched sides," Kejriwal said.
Of the 62 AAP MLAs, 59 were present for the vote of confidence. Out of the three absent, two are abroad and the third, Satyendar Jain, is in jail in a money laundering case. In total, 58 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence vote, except the Assembly Speaker.
The confidence motion was tabled amid a fierce face-off between AAP and BJP over allegations of corruption and poaching of MLAs. Kejriwal claimed that BJP had set aside Rs 800 crore for toppling the Delhi government by luring 40 AAP MLAs to its camp.
Sisodia, who has been named as an acused by the CBI in the Delhi liquor policy case, also claimed that he was approached by the BJP with the offer to close all cases against him if he joined their party.
In his address, Kejriwal highlighted the work done by his AAP government to improve state-run schools in the national capital.
"Am I doing anything wrong if I want to build schools and hospitals? They (BJP) are spending Rs 20cr- Rs 50 crore to buy MLAs. Both my children studied in IIT. I wish to provide the same education to every child in India," Kejriwal said.
The remarks come after the BJP alleged financial irregularities by the AAP in the construction of classrooms in Delhi. BJP has also accused the AAP government of falsely promising 500 new schools, which were never built.
Projecting AAP as the only alternative to BJP, Kejriwal said there were only two parties at the national level at present -- 'Kattar Imandar' (hardcore honest) party and 'Kattar Beimaan' (hardcore corrupt) party.