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The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday said it has collected over 10 lakh letters with signatures of the city’s residents in support of former Delhi Ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, accused of corruption and currently lodged in Tihar jail.
The party will now send these letters in the form of a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the release of the jailed AAP leaders, its Delhi convener Gopal Rai said at a press conference.
The announcement was made nearly a month after the three main political parties — AAP, BJP and Congress — announced door-to-door campaigns to share their versions of the events regarding the alleged liquor scam with the people of Delhi. The campaigns were announced on March 2, a couple of days after Mr. Sisodia, along with Satyendar Jain, resigned from the Cabinet.
While AAP has tried to rally support for its jailed leaders, the BJP and the Congress have sought to build pressure on the ruling party and “expose” Mr. Kejriwal’s role in the now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy through their respective campaigns.
Claiming that AAP accomplished its goal of getting 10 lakh people to support its campaign, Mr. Rai said people want to know why those who have “robbed” the country are roaming free while the Ministers who have done excellent work in the fields of education and health are in jail.
The BJP hit out at AAP, saying that a letter purportedly shared by AAP leaders on Monday as part of its signature campaign had incomplete details.
“After making money through corruption in liquor and education, Kejriwalji has started forging phone numbers too. They are misleading everyone in the name of the public,” senior BJP leader and Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said in a tweet in Hindi.
When asked about the status of their door-to-door campaign, a Delhi BJP leader said it had been halted for the time being. “There are many more issues and we are raising them before the public. However, our protests against the excise policy scam will not stop until Kejriwal also goes to jail,” the party leader said.
A Delhi Congress leader said the party is currently focusing on spreading awareness about “the attack on democracy” by the Centre and the Opposition’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani issue.
Congress leaders did not comment on how many people they reached out to during their campaign against the alleged liquor scam. However, a senior leader said that Congress was the first to expose the “liquor scam”, which led to its investigation by Central probe agencies.
Published - April 11, 2023 01:39 am IST