Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday asserted that UP CM Yogi Adityanath who “is the only remaining hurdle stopping Amit Shah from becoming Prime Minister” will be removed if the BJP wins the Lok Sabha elections. Addressing a joint press conference with former UP CM and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Kejriwal repeated that PM Modi is asking for votes to make Amit Shah PM because next year, he will turn 75, and by his own rule, would retire.
“I know that Amit Shah has denied it. It is natural for him to do that because Modi ji is the neta right now. But Modi ji will follow his own rule following which BJP leaders, like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan, were asked to retire because they were above 75 years. Next year, Modiji turns 75 and it would be his turn to retire. If he does not, then the public will say that he framed the 75 year retirement rule only to remove Advani,” said Kejriwal.
He said he had highlighted the issue of Modi’s retirement and Adityanath’s removal four days back and the BJP only denied Modi’s retirement plan.
“But they have said nothing about Yogi Adityanath. It is now certain that he would be retired within two or three months if the BJP wins the LS elections. You have seen how they got rid of everyone — Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Raman Singh, Manohar Lal Khattar, Devendra Fadnavis et al — who could have been a challenge for Amit Shah. The biggest hurdle that remains is Adityanath and now they are set to remove him as well,” said Kejriwal.
Both Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav claimed that BJP gave the “400 paar slogan” because they want to get the kind of brute majority required to change the Constitution.
“They want to stop reservation by changing the Constitution framed by Babasaheb Ambedkar. Everyone knows that the RSS and its entire ecosystem is against the policy of reservation. Their leaders have said it,” said Kejriwal.
Akhilesh Yadav echoed Kejriwal but had a different prediction about the election results. According to Kejriwal, the BJP’s seats are coming down in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and it would be restricted below 230 seats. Akhilesh Yadav, however, had a different prediction. “They are saying 400 paar, which means after 400. What it actually means is that they are getting the number of seats left after 400. So they are getting only 143 seats,” said Yadav.
