Defeat BJP to avenge demonetisation, Kejriwal tells UP

Meerut, Dec 1  Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged the people of Uttar Pradesh to vote against the BJP in the upcoming assembly elections to avenge the demonetisation misery.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader also told a public rally here that the spiking of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes was the "biggest scandal in independent India" and was actually meant to help the super rich.

Towards the end of his 35-minute speech, Kejriwal said Narendra Modi would have never become the Prime Minister but for the massive support he got in the Lok Sabha polls of 2014 from Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP won 71 of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats while an ally took another two.

"It is now your responsibility" to ensure the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the assembly elections due early next year, Kejriwal said.

"People must avenge every minute they have spent standing in serpentine queues at banks and ATMs" following the November 8 demonetisation and the cash crunch they are battling, he said.

The AAP leader alleged that papers seized by the Income Tax department following raids on two corporate houses in 2013 and 2014 showed that huge bribes were paid to Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister.

He urged Modi to have the allegations investigated to clear his name.

Kejriwal said the reason the demonetisation took place was to force people to deposit in banks all the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes so that the government could waive off Rs 8 lakh crore worth of loans of corporates.

"We have been cheated, people have been cheated," he said.