Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, has written a letter to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, questioning his ‘silence’ on hiked gas prices, which will come into effect from April 1.
“You are a Prime Ministerial candidate, why are you still quiet over the issue? A common man wants to know that if your party forms the Government and you become the Prime Minister, would you bring down the gas price from $8 per unit to $4,” said the letter read by Kejriwal at a press conference here on Friday.
He said from April 1, problems will mount for the people as higher gas prices would lead to a hike in prices of transport, power, fertiliser and food items.
The AAP leader, who said he would also write to Congress Vice-President, Rahul Gandhi, questioned the BJP and Congress party’s silence on the issue, wondering whether this was because of “their close relations with Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Mukesh Ambani”.
Kejriwal, whose 49-day-old Delhi Government quit office recently after failing to introduce Jan Lokpal Bill, had alleged that BJP and Congress had done “match fixing” because his Government had ordered the filing of an FIR against Reliance-led Mukesh Ambani and Union Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily, among others, for alleged irregularities in gas pricing.
He had alleged that the UPA Government had agreed to raise the gas price of the Krishna-Godavari basin from $4 to $8 from April 1, leading to a loss of Rs 54,000 crore to the exchequer.
The letter also questioned Modi’s assurance on bringing back black money from Swiss banks, saying that even the Ambani brothers had A/C numbers 50190160983 and 5090160984 there.
He also questioned Modi on the recent election of Parimal Nathvani, the group President of the Mukesh Ambani companies, to Rajya Sabha “with your help,” adding that “...This creates suspicion over your relations with Mukesh Ambani.”
The AAP, which is planning to plunge into the Lok Sabha elections in a big way, also questioned the poll funding of BJP and Congress and urged them to make election expenses public, as also disclose the list of people who fund their election campaigns.