Operation Lotus: Special session of Delhi Assembly today amid BJP-AAP slugfest

Delhi's ruling AAP and the BJP are at loggerheads over the central agencies' action against AAP leaders and the Delhi govt officials in connection with the excise policy case and the alleged poaching of MLAs.

New Delhi: The Arvind Kejriwal government has called a special session of the Delhi Assembly on Friday amid an ongoing war of words between the two parties over central probe agencies' action AAP leaders in connection with the alleged irregularities in the implementation of the excise policy and poaching of AAP MLAs by the saffron party.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Bidhuri alleged that the ruling party has made the Assembly a "political arena". "Convening a one-day session is a mockery of democracy," he added. The Delhi Congress demanded that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia apologise in the special session of the House for "lying about the liquor scam".

"The special session should decide on bringing out a White Paper on the liquor scam to bring out the truth," said Delhi Congress president Anil Chaudhary.

A high-voltage drama unfolded on Thursday with Kejriwal summoning the AAP MLAs at his residence as he accused the BJP of trying to topple his government by offering Rs 800 crore to 40 of his legislators for switching sides and asked if this money came from GST collections, PM CARES Fund or some of its "friends".

Kejriwal visited Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Rajghat along with Aam Aadmi Party MLAs to pray for the country, asserting that the AAP government is stable as his party legislators are not for sale. AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said the "Operation Lotus" by the BJP has failed.

Operation Lotus: FAILED‼️ pic.twitter.com/uUYba7Ob5r — AAP (@AamAadmiParty) August 25, 2022

Hours after AAP MLAs visited Rajghat, BJP leaders sprinkled Ganga water to "purify" the memorial as those who offered "Pauwwe par Pauwwa" in Delhi (one plus one scheme under the excise policy) went there to absolve them of their "sin". MP Manoj Tiwari compared Kejriwal with German Nazi politician Joseph Goebbels for allegedly telling lies repeatedly to divert attention from the "liquor scam" of his government.

The BJP hit back hard, saying the AAP's allegations were like a "movie script" and the party was indulging in theatrics. Hours after AAP MLAs visited Rajghat, BJP leaders sprinkled Ganga water to "purify" the memorial as those who offered "Pauwwe par Pauwwa" in Delhi (one plus one scheme under the excise policy) went there to absolve them of their "sin".

Meanwhile, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's weekly meeting scheduled for Friday has been called off owing to the Assembly session.