Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday linked the toppling of the state governments with inflation, saying the central government would not have imposed GST on daily essential items. Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal said that the GST on items like curd, buttermilk, honey, wheat, and rice will bring ₹7,500 crore to the central government’s exchequer every year. He further made an unsubstantiated claim that the central government has spent ₹6,300 crore on topping the state governments.
“The GST imposed on curd, buttermilk, honey, wheat, rice etc. will bring 7500 crore annually to the central government. So far, they have spent 6,300 crore on toppling governments. Had they not toppled these governments, GST would not have had to be imposed on wheat, rice, buttermilk etc. People would not have to face inflation,” Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has opened a new line of attack after CBI raided Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s residence in connection with an alleged liquor scam linked to Delhi Excise Policy 2020-21. AAP claimed that party MLAs received an offer of ₹20 crore each from BJP to topple the government in the Union Territory.
Speaking at a special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Kejriwal said, “They toppled several governments in the country till date – Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya. There is a serial killer in the city who is committing one murder after the other. People choose a government, they topple it.”
The special session of the Delhi Assembly has been extended by a day for AAP to bring the confidence motion in House to prove that no party MLA has defected.
“It is being said that they broke away a number of MLAs. I received phone calls, people asked me if everything is alright. I would like to bring a Confidence Motion in House to show people that not even one went away, that BJP’s Operation Lotus became “Operation keechad” here,” said Kejriwal.