Kejriwal to RSS chief: Does BJP's vote buying reflect RSS's values?
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New Delhi: AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, raising concerns and seeking answers regarding the BJP's political actions.
In his letter, Kejriwal posed several pointed questions, "Does RSS support whatever wrong BJP has done in the past few days? BJP leaders are openly distributing money, does RSS support vote buying? Dalit and Purvanchali votes (from the voter list) are being cut on a large scale. Does RSS think this is good for democracy? Doesn't RSS feel that the BJP is weakening democracy?"
On December 29, Kejriwal had launched a fierce attack on the BJP, accusing the party of attempting to manipulate voter lists. He claimed that "Operation Lotus" had been ongoing since December 15 in his Assembly constituency, and highlighted the issue of voter deletion in Shahdara constituency, where the BJP allegedly submitted applications to remove 11,008 voters.
Kejriwal further alleged that "Operation Lotus" had begun in his own New Delhi constituency on December 15. He stated that in just 15 days, BJP had submitted applications to delete 5,000 voters and add 7,500, which he claimed could alter the election results. "With 12% of the votes manipulated, what’s the point of elections? This is blatant tampering disguised as democracy," Kejriwal remarked.
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The BJP, however, refuted these allegations, claiming that the AAP had included illegal voters, such as Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, in the voter list. BJP spokesperson Manjinder Singh Sirsa asserted, "We openly state that you have added 8,000 to 10,000 illegal votes per constituency. In homes where five people live, you've registered up to 50 fake votes. We will remove every single one of these illegal votes." Sirsa also accused AAP of harboring infiltrators for political gain, stating that the party had provided them with financial aid and shelter.
This was not the first time Kejriwal had addressed the RSS chief. In September 2024, he had written a similar letter, posing five questions related to the BJP and its leadership.
In the letter, Kejriwal expressed his concern over the direction in which the BJP-led Centre was taking the country and its politics, deeming them harmful to India. He also raised questions about the actions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the role of the BJP. Among his key queries, Kejriwal asked whether the BJP’s age limit for retirement, which had affected veteran leaders like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, also applied to PM Modi. He questioned whether Modi would step down once he reached the age of 75.
Kejriwal also raised concerns over the alleged misuse of central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to destabilize opposition-led governments. He asked if this practice was in line with the RSS’s values. Additionally, he referred to a statement by BJP President J.P. Nadda during the Lok Sabha elections, where Nadda allegedly said the BJP did not need the RSS. Kejriwal asked Bhagwat for his reaction to this claim.
In the 2024 letter, Kejriwal reminded Bhagwat that the RSS is the parent organization of the BJP, and he believed it was the RSS’s responsibility to steer the party back on the right path.
With IANS inputs