Why back off meekly now, former AAP leader Anjali Damania asks Kejriwal

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania today attacked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, asking him why he had published a list of 20 "corrupt politicians" if he wanted to "back off meekly".

She also rejected Kejriwal's contention that he wanted to focus on his strength in Delhi, after the AAP convenor, who was facing a string of defamation suits, apologised to leaders of rivals parties, including Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, for his remarks against them.

"Ideally with a strong MLA force of 67 out of 70 MLAs, he should have entrusted the functioning of Delhi government to his trusted MLAs and fought each one of the cases and ensured victory in every single matter and punish these corrupt politicians," he said.

Damania, once a key associate of Kejriwal, had accused Gadkari of irregularities in his Purti Group of companies.

Kejriwal went on to name Gadkari as the one of the most corrupt politicians in the country. Taking an objection to this, Gadkari had moved the court against Kejriwal for allegedly defaming him.

"It is extremely upsetting to see Arvind seeking apology from Gadkari despite concrete evidences given by me. Why on the earth had the AAP issued a list of 20 most corrupt politicians if they were to back off meekly?" Damania said.

Besides spear-heading the campaign against Gadkari, Damania had also contested against him from Nagpur in the Lok Sabha polls 2014.

She added that she still has 24 defamation cases against her and will fight them out till the end.

Damania had quit the party in 2015 at the time when the party was witnessing an ugly spat between Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav on one side and Kejriwal on the other.