The BJP and the AAP on Thursday engaged in a war of words over CBI’s action against former opposition party MLA Durgesh Pathak. BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh came down heavily on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after the CBI raids on Durgesh Pathak, saying that the AAP is in the dock for it’s foreign funding. Chugh said the AAP has always been playing a dubious politics that bordered on anti-national interests.
Hitting back, the AAP said the central government unleashed the CBI on the party’s Gujarat co-incharge in fear of growing influence in the PM’s home state.
Reacting over the development, the Delhi BJP said that until now, they had heard of donation thieves, but now it has become a donation glutton party as Pathak is the person who stole his own party’s donations. Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said that the AAP is truly a strange party. He said that the character of Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP and its leaders is rooted in loot, corruption, and lies. He said that continuing this pattern, Pathak has once again tried to hide a lie from the people of Delhi to cover up his loot and corruption. The money collected through the liquor scam in Delhi was funneled into the Goa elections, during which thye former AAP MLA was in charge of the AAP’s Goa campaign.
“Pathak has essentially embezzled his own party’s funds. If the investigating agencies are doing their job, what is his problem with it? Someone who steals from his own party’s funds is even more corrupt than Lalu Yadav. The agencies are doing their job, and once the full report is made public, more names involved in this case will be revealed. The money spent in the Goa elections came from the liquor policy, and it was used as party funds. However, Pathak has misappropriated this very donation money derived from the liquor policy,” Sachdeva said.
South Delhi BJP MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri slammed the AAP leader saying AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has built a coterie of corrupt and tainted leaders, and every time agencies initiate action, AAP resorts to crocodile tears and hollow allegations of political vendetta.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, including Pathak, slammed the government for the CBI action, saying it is a “conspiracy born out of fear” and an effort to “intimidate” him due to his growing political activity in Gujarat.
“A team of five-six CBI officers came to my house and searched every corner of my two-room premises for around three-four hours. They did not tell me why they had come or for which case. They showed me a search warrant, and I welcomed them. They searched everything but couldn’t find anything,” Pathak said later at a press conference.
“I think they came to scare me as I have started working in Gujarat for the AAP. They came so that nobody joins us in Gujarat ... They arrested Sanjay Singh after the AAP got five MLAs in Gujarat and emerged as a good alternative in the state,” he added.
Echoing similar sentiments, senior AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on X, “CBI raid at Durgesh Pathak’s house as soon as he got responsibility for Gujarat elections 2027! This is not a coincidence, this is a conspiracy born out of fear.”
