New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday claimed "there may not be an election in the country next time" if opposition parties do not unite to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. AAP's national spokesperson and Delhi cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said this while speaking at a press conference.
Modi will himself as country's "king"
Bharadwaj further claimed if Narendra Modi is re-elected as Prime Minister in 2024, there is a possibility that he may change the Constitution and declare himself as the country's "king" for as long as he is alive. However, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva dismissed Bharadwaj's claims as a "stupid charge".
"The way CBI, ED and IT raids are being conducted against leaders of opposition parties and they are being put behind bars, there is a possibility that if Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister (again) in 2024, he will change the Constitution and declare that he will be the king of this country as long as he is alive. nd the freedom of this country, for which countless people laid down their lives, would be lost," Bharadwaj claimed.
Asked about the AAP's agenda for the June 23 Opposition conclave in Patna, Bharadwaj said, "The big issue now is that if opposition parties do not fight (the 2024 elections) by coming together, then it is possible that there may not be an election in the country next time." He further said that the BJP is "trampling the Opposition by hook or by crook."
The June 23 meeting of opposition parties, organised by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will see the anti-BJP players chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.
Bharadwaj's claims as "stupid" and "childish"
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva dubbed Bharadwaj's claims as "stupid" and "childish". "Instead of levelling childish allegations, Bharadwaj should tell why his party is so desperate to hug even those parties and political leaders whom Kejriwal used to abuse and accuse of being corrupt," he said.
Further, Bharadwaj also targeted Congress for allegedly copying ideas from the AAP's manifestos and termed it a "copycat". "The oldest party of the country, the Indian National Congress, not only has a crisis of leaders but a crisis of ideas too. After mocking Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP for their welfare schemes related to water and electricity, and free bus rides for women, it is now copying our ideas," he said.
Asked about the tussle between the AAP dispensation in Delhi and the Centre over services matters, Bharadwaj said the central government wants to stall the work of the elected government in the national capital. The work to halt the welfare schemes through officers has started "on a war footing". Surgeries in private hospitals through Delhi hospitals are being halted and attempts are being made to "uproot people" living in JJ clusters, he charged.
"This is not happening randomly, but as part of a conspiracy on the directions of the Centre," he claimed.
(With PTI inputs)
