Congress using AAP as a front to stop Narendra Modi, says BJP

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is only a front acting on behalf of the scam-tainted Congress party to stop Narendra Modi from becoming the Prime Minister, according to the Bhartiya Janata Party.

Since the Congress has nothing to boast of and nothing to offer, the party is using the AAP and the Third Front to fight the BJP, its national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in Gandhinagar on Wednesday.

"The Congress party is left with nothing to talk about. So their leaders are pushing AAP and Third Front against Modi. We believe that all votes given to the AAP and Third Front are actually given to the Congress," Javadekar said, while addressing a press meet today at the newly-inaugurated Gujarat BJP headquarters, 'Shri Kamalam'.

"The Congress was involved in numerous scams such as Adarsh, 2G, coal, CWG and many more. Such large scale corruption was never seen in Gujarat" claimed Javadekar, who refused to accept allegations of corruption in the Sujalam Sufalam project in Gujarat.

The Modi government in Gujarat, Javdekar said, is free from such corruption.

Javadekar also criticised the AAP for giving a Lok Sabha ticket to Medha Patkar who opposed the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada river.

He asked the AAP to come clean on the question of the Narmada dam issue before making enquiring about funds received by the BJP for election rallies.

"For the people of Gujarat, the water of the Narmada river is a question of life and death. The Gujarat government always tried to increase the height of the dam, but Medha Patkar stalled the project through her petition. AAP must tell the people of Gujarat people if Medha Patkar will ever withdraw it," said Javdekar.

On BJP's decision to include tainted B S Yeddyurappa back into its fold, Javdekar said the former Karnataka chief minister has been given a "clean chit" by the high court.

"The high court has disposed of the corruption case against Yediyurappa. So, we have welcomed him into the party," Javdekar said.

Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal, who landed in Gujarat on Wednesday to have a first-hand ''check'' on Narendra Modi's claims of development, was detained by the police for alleged violation of the model election code.

The AAP leader was briefly taken into preventive custody in Radhanpur, in the state's north, before being released after half an hour.

Since then, the AAP and the BJP have been fighting street battles in Delhi and elsewhere in the country.