The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday sent a defamation notice to senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi over her claim that she is being pressurised by the saffron party to switch sides.
Four senior AAP leaders, including herself, would be arrested soon, Delhi minister Atishi said on Tuesday, claiming the BJP approached her through a "very close" person to join it or be prepared to be nabbed by the ED within a month.
Atishi, while addressing a press conference on Tuesday, claimed that she, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, MLA Durgesh Pathak and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha would be arrested.
Atishi further claimed that she had been told that the Enforcement Directorate would conduct raids at her residence and that of her kin in the coming days. After that, summons would be sent and arrests would be made, she claimed.
There is no reason for Arvind Kejriwal to resign as chief minister because he has neither been charge-sheeted nor convicted in the excise policy case. Moreover, he enjoys an "overwhelming majority in the Delhi Assembly, she said.
If he resigns from the chief minister post, it will become a "simple and straight standard operating procedure" for the BJP to topple governments by sending chief ministers behind bars in false cases, Atishi asserted.
"The BJP has realised that sending only Kejriwal to jail would not lead to the disintegration of the AAP and now it aims to get four second-line leaders of the party, including me, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Raghav Chadha and Durgesh Pathak, arrested," she said.
"I was approached by the BJP through a person very close to me who asked me to join the BJP to save and enhance my political career. Or I will be arrested within a month," the AAP leader said.
Atishi claimed the BJP has been rattled by the success of the INDIA bloc's Ramlila Maidan rally on Sunday and by the AAP's protests against Kejriwal's arrest.
"The BJP hoped AAP would disintegrate after the arrest of its top leaders -- Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Satyendar Jain. But now it feels that the next top four leaders need to be sent to jail," she said.
"I want to tell the BJP that we are not going to be scared by your threats. We are soldiers of Kejriwal and disciples of Bhagat Singh. We will fight to save the country and for the betterment of the people till the last AAP volunteer," she asserted.
BJP hits back at AAP
However, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva claimed that Atishi was "lying". The entire Aam Aadmi Party was involved in the "liquor scam" and its leaders were fighting among themselves over the apprehension about who would be the next "sacrificial lamb", he said.
(Report by Vishal Pandey)
