With Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls round the corner, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is busy in setting up the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) structure in the country’s most populous state.
Addressing a rally here, Kejriwal urged the people of Uttar Pradesh to vote against the BJP in the upcoming assembly polls to avenge the hardships caused by demonetisation decision.
“Demonetisation was the biggest scandal in independent India and it was actually meant to help the super rich,” he said.
"It is now your responsibility to ensure the BJP's defeat in the assembly elections due early next year. People must avenge every minute they have spent standing in queues at banks and ATMs following the November 8 ban,” he added.
At the end of his 35-minute long speech, Kejriwal said that Narendra Modi was voted to power in 2014 Lok Sabha polls only because of the massive support he got from the politically crucial state. The BJP had won 71 of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats while an ally took another two.
The AAP leader alleged that papers seized by the Income Tax department following raids on two corporate houses in 2013 and 2014 showed that huge bribes were paid to Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister.
He urged Modi to have the allegations investigated to clear his name.
"The BJP has made several allegations against us but we always told them to get these investigated. But why is Modiji scared? It makes us wonder if the allegations are true."
Kejriwal said the reason the demonetisation took place was to force people to deposit in banks all the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes so that the government could waive off Rs 8 lakh crore worth of loans of corporates.
He said that demonetisation was not meant to curb black money but to benefit the biggest corporate houses.
"Modiji says demonetisation is aimed at ending corruption and black money. But it is actually a scheme to turn black money of Modiji's friends into white. We have been cheated, people have been cheated," Kejriwal said.
The AAP has been protesting against the central government's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1,000 notes.
With IANS Inputs
