Congress slams AAP for not responding to bribery charges

New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) The Congress on Tuesday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for not responding to the corruption allegations levelled by sacked Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during the special session of Delhi assembly.

The Congress also accused the party of diverting attention from the real issues by holding a demonstration on EVM tampering in the assembly.

"When the AAP called the special assembly session, we expected that corruption charges against the Chief Minister and problems faced by the people of Delhi will be discussed," Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said in a series of tweets.

Maken said he hoped issues like Kejriwal taking bribe, dengue on the rise, water and power shortage and Metro fare hike would be discussed. "But none of the issues were discussed in the assembly," he said.

"Kejriwal diverting public attention from governance-failure and corruption," he tweeted.

Maken also slammed Kejriwal for raising doubts over electronic voting machines (EVMs).

"All doubts regarding EVM can be put before the ECI (Election Commission of India) on May 12," the former Union Minister said.

"EVM be tested before EC!" Maken said, adding, "The AAP lost deposit in Rajouri by-polls where VVPAT and paper-trail was used."

"VVPAT should be implemented asap!" Maken added.

The Congress leader's remarks came after AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj sought to demonstrate in the assembly as to how an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) could be tampered with.

The AAP is in the throes of a crisis with its sacked Minister Kapil Mishra accusing Kejriwal and other senior leaders of corruption.

The AAP, which termed Mishra's allegations as "baseless", suspended him from the party's primary membership at the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting on Monday.