Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Friday slammed his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal for refusing to step down from his post after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case a day earlier.
Yadav said Kejriwal was held because he was refusing to appear before the ED despite several summonses, adding that the nation has a history of eminent personalities like Lal Bahadur Shastri and BJP patriarch LK Advani who resigned the moment their names appeared in a rail accident or false cases.
"Kejriwal, who is the Congress' partner, got nine summonses from the ED. His ministers are in jail and now he has been arrested. But he is not resigning and says he will rule as CM from jail," Yadav said in a rally in tribal-dominated Mandla district.
Yadav was here to attend a public meeting and a rally ahead of filing of nomination by Union Minister Faggan Singh Kulaste.
"We have the example of Shastri who resigned as railway minister soon after a train accident on moral grounds. Advani resigned the moment his name 'LK' figured in a page of a diary in a false corruption case. He vowed not to contest an election or become minister till his name is cleared of all the charges," Yadav said.
"Kejriwal is so thick-skinned that he is saying he will run the government from jail. This is unfortunate. People will not tolerate this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government will not tolerate this," Yadav said.
Better sense must prevail on Kejriwal and he must see the world's biggest democracy and also the unblemished rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the MP CM said.
Modi, despite being chief minister and prime minister, does not even have an iota of a charge against his name, Yadav pointed out.
Hailing Modi, Yadav said he abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while the Congress kept the issue hanging for the sake of minority community votes, resulting in the deaths of 40,000 persons.
The Congress is unable to digest the fact that the BJP has got Ram Temple constructed in Ayodhya and the opposition party even declined the invitation to the idol consecration event on January 22, he said.
"People will not forgive those who disrespect Lord Ram. We must take a pledge to ensure the NDA crosses 400 seats and Modi becomes PM again," he said.
The gathering was also addressed by the state BJP president VD Sharma and Kulaste. Later Yadav and Sharma accompanied Kulaste in a rally after which the Union minister filed his nomination papers from Mandla seat.
Kulaste is up against the Congress' Omkar Singh Markam.
