AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Saturday said he would start working immediately on defeating the BJP in the upcoming Assembly polls, appearing both combative and emotional in his first address to party workers after his release from jail.

“I have come out to shed blood and sweat, not to holiday. BJP people will keep wondering where their votes went… I want to tell every citizen of Delhi, Haryana and the country that they should stand up against this dictator,” Sisodia said at the party headquarters here.

“They transferred 10,000 teachers of Delhi in one night. If this is not dictatorship, then what is it?... The money of the Jal Board has not been given for one and a half years,
even though its budget has been passed in the Assembly. Dictatorship is not limited to arresting the leaders of AAP, but the sewers overflowing in various places in Delhi are also due to this dictatorship,” he added.

The former deputy chief minister of Delhi said he had hoped to get justice in seven-eight months, but it took 17 months.

“But truth and honesty won…. For any person in jail, a lawyer is like a god. Abhishek Manu Singhvi is god for me. He brought this entire legal battle to its conclusion and will soon bring chief minister Arvind Kejriwal out as well,” Sisodia added.

Kejriwal, former AAP minister Satyendar Jain and Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC K. Kavitha are in jail in connection with the 2022 liquor policy case. Jain has been behind bars for over two years, barring a short spell of medical bail. The AAP
has alleged that the case is false and an outcome of the political vendetta of the BJP, which misused the central agencies.

In a reply to AAP MP Sanjay Singh in the Rajya Sabha this week, the Centre revealed that 132 cases were filed by the Enforcement Directorate against politicians in the last five years. The agency has secured only one conviction during that period.

“I used to see in the papers that the BJP has put many big businessmen in jail by filing false cases against them. They hardly have any connection with any party. If someone is working hard and is not giving donations to the BJP or messes with any of its people, a false case is filed against him and he is put in jail. Thousands of people run their households because of a businessman. If they go to jail, those families start dying of hunger... the BJP will be cursed by them,” Sisodia said.

A party source said Sisodia intended to actively woo the trading community in Delhi and Haryana before the Assembly polls.

“They are a vote bank of the BJP but are fed up with the party. Manish will send out a clear message that the AAP stands against extortion of traders…. He will overhaul the party organisation and many sitting elected representatives may be dropped. The party leadership now regards Abhishek Singhvi highly, and Rajya Sabha members who are not working well can be asked to vacate their seat for him,” the source said.