Predictable script, action against BJP's convenient allies will vanish: Cong on Kejriwal clean chit

New Delhi, Feb 27 (PTI) With a Delhi court discharging former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case, the Congress on Friday said it was a "predictable script" from the BJP, and proceedings against its convenient "allies" in the AAP and others will quietly vanish in light of the Gujarat and Punjab elections due next year.

The Congress also termed the BJP a "shape-shifter, a wishful serpent -- Icchadhari Naag".

The opposition party's swipe at the BJP and AAP came after a Delhi court discharged ex-chief minister Kejriwal, his former deputy Manish Sisodia and 22 others in the politically charged liquor policy case and pulled up the CBI by saying it found no "overarching conspiracy or criminal intent" in the policy.

Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha was among those given a clean chit in the case.

Reacting to the development, Congress media and publicity cell head Pawan Khera said, "The BJP is not a political party. It is a shape-shifter, a wishful serpent - ‘Icchadhari Naag’. It will stoop to any level for one obsessive goal: defeat Congress - ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’." "For 12 years, they spewed venom at the TMC. And now? Narendra Modi himself is showering it with praise -- not out of respect, but to land a cheap blow at Congress," Khera said in a post in Hindi on X.

"Elections are coming. So the script is predictable. Cases against Congress leaders will suddenly accelerate -- P Chidambaram has already been dragged back into the spotlight because Tamil Nadu is going to the polls.

“Meanwhile, proceedings against their convenient 'allies' in the AAP and others will quietly vanish in light of the Gujarat and Punjab elections," the Congress leader said.

This is the BJP playbook -- vendetta as governance and agencies as campaign tools, Khera alleged.

Tagging Khera's post, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said, "Indeed. It all boils down to political convenience for G2." Coming down heavily on the CBI, special judge Jitendra Singh refused to take cognisance of the CBI chargesheet against the 23 accused persons.

It also observed that the federal agency's case did not withstand judicial scrutiny, especially when the CBI sought to construct a narrative of conspiracy on mere conjecture.

The CBI has been probing alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the erstwhile AAP government's now scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.

As news came in of the clean chit in the case that helped bring the AAP government down last February, Kejriwal broke down and said the corruption case against him was the "biggest political conspiracy" in the history of Independent India. PTI ASK ARI