New Delhi, April 25
A day after former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Swati Maliwal, along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), she cited AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal's "corruption, hooliganism and lies" as the reason. Maliwal also clarified that she has not joined the BJP under any compulsion.
During an interaction with IANS, she rekindled her time with the AAP.
Maliwal said: "I have been working with Arvind Kejriwal since 2006. I left my home, gave up my job, and stayed in jhuggi areas for seven years, supporting him in every movement."
However, reiterating her allegations from 2024, she added, "Arvind Kejriwal got me brutally beaten by his aides at his residence. When I tried to file an FIR, I was threatened and intimidated. Even over the past two years, several attempts were made to force me to withdraw the FIR."
She also accused Kejriwal of being an "anti-woman person".
Maliwal asserted that she had tried to improve the party for the past two years, however, she said that change is not possible with "so much of money game".
"I tried to raise issues in the past two years but no body listened to me," she claimed.
Referring to previous instances of several leaders quitting the AAP, Maliwal said, "Every good person has left Arvind Kejriwal at some point or the other. When one realises that he (Kejriwal) is corrupt and a liar, he or she leaves him."
"There are thousands of volunteers whose names we might not know, they also have left the AAP. Arvind Kejriwal had shown a dream to all of us but later he himself became corrupt," she added.
Blaming Kejriwal for focusing to lead a luxurious life, she said: "Simplicity was one of our very important aspects when we started, that has been completely lost by Arvind Kejriwal."
Maliwal alleged that after losing the Delhi Assembly polls, the AAP Chief is now running the Punjab government "via remote control".
"He (Kejriwal) has imposed all the rejected MLAs from Delhi on Punjab. Didn't he find any Punjabi to appoint to any of the commissions? And Bibhav Kumar, who hit me and had behaved so rudely, Arvind Kejriwal has given that man Z+ security in Punjab. He has appointed that person as the Chief Advisor to (Punjab Chief Minister) Bhagwant Mann," she alleged.
Moreover, she added, "He (Kejriwal) has made the AAP government in Punjab as a personal ATM. Due to him, today Punjab has drowned into corruption."
The MP further blamed the AAP for illegal sand mining and drug mafia "taking over" Punjab.
She accused the AAP of using Punjab in order to lead a lavish lifestyle.
"Punjab will never forgive them," she asserted.
Sharpening the attack on her former party, Maliwal alleged that for the last two years, despite being the only woman AAP MP, she was not allowed to speak in the Parliament out of the party's allotted time.
"Only when the new Rajya Sabha Chairman (V.P. Radhakrishnan) started allotting me time from his quota, I could speak something. Recently I spoke on POCSO issues for 10 minutes," she mentioned.
The MP also claimed that other leaders within AAP are also "disappointed" and the entire party will "collapse very soon".
Meanwhile, she praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
"One one hand there is Arvind Kejriwal's hooliganism and corruption and on the other hand there is a decisive leadership in the country which is of PM Modi," Maliwal said.
"I want to work under the guidance of PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. I am not joining the BJP under any compulsion," she clarified.
