Results of the Delhi assembly election are not a vindication of Prime Minister's Narendra Modi's policies but a referendum on Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress said on Saturday as it vowed to bounce back from another whitewash.
The Delhi BJP, however, rubbished the allegation and challenged AAP to name the MLAs and the people who contacted them with the offer.
'If you weed out corruption, you will bring glory to Goa.'
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday alleged that bribe money generated from corruption in a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) contract was 'passed on' as election funds to the Aam Aadmi Party that rules the national capital.
Debutant legislator Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Delhi chief minister along with six ministers on Thursday in a grand show of strength full of colour and spectacle to mark the Bharatiya Janata Party's return to power in the city after more than 26 years.
With just over a month to go for assembly elections in Goa, political observers feel the Congress may upset the Bharatiya Janata Party's plans for retaining power in the coastal state, but appear less enthused about the Trinamool Congress, whose entry has added colour to the poll campaign.
The federal agency had arrested 46-year-old Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, from her Banjara hills residence in Hyderabad on March 15.
The leaders of the two parties discussed the possibilities of seat sharing but did not divulge any details.
The BJP's victory in the Delhi Assembly elections has sparked speculation over who will lead the next government. Several prominent leaders, including Pravesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Pawan Sharma, Vijender Gupta, and Satish Upadhyay, are in the running for the chief minister's post. The party's national leadership is expected to make the final decision, leaving the contenders in a state of anticipation.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the two probe agencies, told a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti he has instructions to state that the agencies are considering making AAP an accused, invoking legal provisions on "vicarious liability" under the anti-corruption law and section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Several exit polls on Monday forecast a clear majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab with some of them giving an edge to the saffron party in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
In keeping with the trend seen elsewhere in the country so far, an all-time-high 76.82 percent of the voters exercised the franchise in the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Goa on Saturday.
AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh next month to launch his party's foray into these states that are slated to go to polls later this year.
Former Goa's Inspector General of Prison, Elvis Gomes will be AAP's chief ministerial candidate for 2017 polls.
The law officer said the money trail showed that Rs 45 crore "kickback" used in the Goa assembly elections came from four hawala routes.
It was crucial for the BJP to bag the two seats as it does not enjoy a majority on its own in the 40-member assembly.
Mamata asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on seat-sharing in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The cabinet of the new government led by Rekha Gupta balances representation of all major communities that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Delhi with a massive majority after over 26 years.
The country now has six national parties - Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, NPP and AAP.
The vote share of the Congress, which won 11 assembly seats in Goa this time, plunged by nearly five per cent as compared to what it was in the previous election, while the BJP, which retained power in the coastal state, saw a marginal rise in it, the data shared by the Election Commission shows.
"The central leaders of BJP are in touch with Utpal and have offered two seats to contest elections in Goa. I am sure that this issue will be resolved and he will consider the offer," the Goa CM said.
Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday promised free pilgrimage to various religious centres, including Ayodhya and Ajmer Sharif, if his party is voted to power in Goa in the assembly polls due in next February, which he said is a 'third guarantee' being given by AAP to Goans.
"The TMC wants to defeat BJP and will do whatever necessary. We want to ensure that BJP does not win or form a government through the backdoor," Moitra said when asked about a possible pre-poll alliance with the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Congress.
In Goa, where Assembly elections are a few months away, a delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders led by Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy and including former Union Minister Babul Supriyo and the party's vice president Luizinho Faleiro met Governor P S Sridharan Pillai and requested him to immediately seek resignation from the chief minister and announce investigation by an independent agency.
Chandrashekar rejected the allegations of AAP leaders that he was trying to malign the image of the party and its leaders at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Delhi Municipal Corporation election in Delhi.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday promised to introduce a free pilgrimage scheme for the people of different communities in Uttarakhand if the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in the state.
"They tried to buy our MLAs in Delhi and now in Punjab but we exposed them (BJP)," Kejriwal said.
With its landslide victory in Punjab assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party has achieved a major milestone in its journey so far and emerged as an alternative in the national politics.
With Atishi at the helm it will not be easy for the BJP to continue using the LG's office and the bureaucracy as political instruments to hinder governance and thereby provoke the electorate's ire against the AAP, expects Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Here are some of the glimpses.
Gahlot says he has no knowledge of Nair living in his official accommodation, AAP's Goa activities
'Kejriwal tries to project that his party is not Hindu virodhi.'
The ED also alleged that Kejriwal, during his questioning, said AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair 'did not report to him' but to his cabinet colleagues Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj and that his interaction with Nair was 'limited'.
The TMC, which is keen to leave a mark in its outing in Goa, had suggested a broad alliance but not much has moved on the proposal due to competing interests and apparent lack of faith between the opposition parties.
Despite the AAP cutting into its votes, the Congress still polled 27 per cent votes and won 17 seats.
During the arguments, the Kejriwal's counsel told the court that the entire case upon the CM rests on statements.
'There is no hard evidence, but our MLAs have been getting calls from industrialists and mining mafia in the state to quit the Congress and join the BJP.'
Special Judge Kaveri Baweja at the Rouse Avenue court said Kejriwal will be produced before the court on March 28 at 2 pm.
In a massive setback to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed his petition challenging his arrest in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise scam, saying there was no contravention of legal provisions.
Aiming to breach the Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat bastion, the Aam Aadmi Party fielded its candidate to contest all 182 assembly seats and carried out a high decibel campaign in the run-up to the polls in Gujarat.
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