New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday raided the residence of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Gujarat poll co-incharge Durgesh Pathak. Soon after the raid, the AAP launched a scathing attack on the Union government, accusing it of misusing the central agencies in order to arm-twist the Opposition leaders ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections in 2027.

In a post on social media platform X, AAP leader and former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said: “The Central government has started to threaten the AAP leaders by using the CBI.”

Notably Pathak was appointed the AAP’s Gujarat co-incharge for the 2027 Assembly elections.

“In the previous Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP, scared by the AAP’s presence got our leader arrested. Now when Durgesh Pathak has been assigned the responsibility of Gujarat AAP election co-incharge, the CBI has raided his house,” Bharadwaj said. “The BJP got unnerved by Durgesh Pathak’s appointment as it is in a bad shape in Gujarat,” he claimed.

The leader also professed that the BJP views the AAP as the main Opposition in Gujarat. The party also said that the CBI raid was proof that the BJP was fearing the AAP’s expansion to other states in the country.

Party leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi posted on X, “As soon as the AAP started preparing for the Gujarat polls, CBI raided the house of the party’s election co-incharge of the state.”

She claimed that only the AAP can challenge the BJP in Gujarat and the CBI raid shows the ruling party’s “nervousness”.

“In all these years, the BJP has not understood that we are not going to be scared of their threats,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly said in her post.

AAP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, “The CBI raid on Pathak’s house is not a coincidence. It is a conspiracy born out of the BJP’s fear. The BJP knows that only the AAP can challenge them in Gujarat, and this truth has shaken them.” The BJP said probe agencies cannot be faulted for going after wrongdoers and ‘middlemen involved in kickbacks’.

Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said, “If they have not done any wrong, as they are claiming, what are they afraid of?”

“There is no point in complaining about probe agencies’ action if they indulge in dalali (kickbacks) and misdeeds,” he said, urging the AAP leader to prove his innocence in court.

He alleged that the money swindled from Delhi as part of the liquor scam was used by the AAP for its campaign in Goa at a time when Pathak was incharge of the political affairs in the coastal state.

“The bribe and ill-gotten money collected by the AAP was shown as donation in books and used for its campaign in Goa elections,” he claimed.

The AAP has set a glaring example of how to swallow money collected in the name of donations, Sachdeva said, claiming that Pathak’s alleged corruption was worse than that of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav who embezzled money meant for cattle fodder.

The Delhi BJP President professed that AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has built a team of ‘corrupt’ and ‘tainted’ leaders and when the CBI takes action against them the party

starts complaining.