Defeat BJP to avenge demonetisation, Kejriwal tells UP

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 hardships caused by note ban.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader also told a rally here that demonetisation was the "biggest scandal in independent India" and it was actually meant to help the super rich.

Towards the end of his 35-minute speech, Kejriwal said Narendra Modi would not have become the Prime Minister but for the massive support he got in the Lok Sabha polls of 2014 from Uttar Pradesh.

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

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

"People must avenge every minute they have spent standing in queues at banks and ATMs" following the November 8 ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and the cash crunch they were now 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.

"The BJP has made several allegations against us but we always told them to get these investigated. But why is Modiji scared? It makes us wonder if the allegations are true."

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.

He said that demonetisation was not meant to curb black money but to benefit the biggest corporate houses.

"Modiji says demonetisation is aimed at ending corruption and black money. But it is actually a scheme to turn black money of Modiji's friends into white," Kejriwal said. "We have been cheated, people have been cheated."

--IANS

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