Arvind Kejriwal’s Agnipariksha: Delhi CM to counter ‘Operation Lotus’ with trust vote today

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is all set to table a confidence motion in the Delhi assembly today to prove that all AAP MLAs are with him after alleging that the BJP tried to topple his government.

The Delhi assembly's special session on Monday is likely to be a stormy one, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal poised to bring in a confidence motion in the House days after he alleged that the BJP had attempted to poach legislators from his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Once the motion is tabled at 11am, the AAP government will undertake a floor test to prove that his party MLAs had not crossed over. The AAP has 62 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi assembly, while the BJP has eight.

In a blistering attack on the BJP, Kejriwal said last week the saffron party was like a "serial killer" on the prowl. He accused the BJP of plotting to topple his government in Delhi by offering Rs 20 crore to several AAP MLAs to defect, or lodging CBI and ED cases against leaders to break them.

"I want to bring a Motion of Confidence in the assembly so that it can be proved in front of the people of Delhi that the BJP's 'Operation Lotus Delhi' has become 'Operation Kichad'," Kejriwal had said during proceedings in the assembly on Friday.

The AAP's claims about the BJP's alleged 'Operation Lotus' come amid the latter relentlessly targeting the ruling party in the wake of a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the Delhi government's now-scrapped Excise Policy 2021-22.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the excise portfolio and is an accused in the FIR registered by the CBI, had also claimed that he was offered the chief minister's post by the BJP for switching sides.

Mocking the BJP for shambolic planning and their subordinates for their lack of preparedness, Kejriwal had earlier said, “As a part of their conspiracy, they targeted Manish Sisodia first. They planted a frivolous case against him that he had gobbled funds under the garb of excise policy.”