Don't vote for BJP, Kejriwal says in Lucknow

Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged people in Uttar Pradesh not to vote for the BJP.

Towards the end of his half hour speech here, Kejriwal told a huge gathering to "teach him (Modi) a lesson" for making them stand in queues for hours to withdraw their own money from banks and ATMs.

"You made Modiji the Prime Minister. Had Uttar Pradesh not given him 73 out of 80 seats, he would never have become the Prime Minister of India," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

"Now it is your duty to teach him a lesson as well. The whole nation is looking up to you," he said.

The BJP won a whopping 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. An ally bagged two seats, leaving only seven seats to a battered opposition.

Uttar Pradesh will see assembly elections early next year.

Kejriwal said that even the staunchest supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had turned against the party due to the note ban.

"I met a person who had been voting for BJP for the last 30 years. He told me that he had told his family to vote for anyone but the BJP in the coming election," Kejriwal said and urged people to do the same.

The AAP leader also attacked Modi on the government's move to exempt political parties from income tax regulations while depositing demonetised currency notes in their bank accounts.

He demanded an independent commission to probe the bank accounts of all the political parties over the last five years.

"Seventy per cent of the donations received by the BJP are in cash. I want to ask Modiji to first tell his party workers to take donations through cheques. Then we will also go cashless."

He also accused Modi of receiving bribes from corporates while he was the Gujarat Chief Minister.

The AAP leader has been campaigning against the demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes that has led to an unprecedented cash crunch all over the country.

--IANS

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