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Congress legislator vows to vote against Kejriwal

Posted on January 30, 2014 from Delhi ι Report #212

New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS) Congress legislator Asif Muhammad Khan Thursday disrupted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's press conference and vowed to vote against his government, come what may.

A furious Khan also asked the Congress to take back its critical legislative support to the month-old AAP government for what he said was a "betrayal" of a promise made by Kejriwal to Muslims in his area.

Khan is a legislator from Okhla where a controversial shootout between Delhi Police and suspected Indian Mujahideen members in September 2008 left a police officer and two alleged militants dead.

A third suspect was arrested and a fourth escaped. The killings generated controversy after it was alleged that those killed were not militants.

Khan said Kejriwal had earlier promised a Special Investigating Team probe - like the one the chief minister wants into the 1984 killings of Sikhs - into the shootout at Batla House but was now refusing to do so.

Demanding an investigation, Khan called Kejriwal the director of "Radio Jhootistaan" and thundered that he would no longer support the AAP government even if the Congress expelled him.

"I will also request the Congress to withdraw its support to the AAP," he added.

"He (Kejriwal) had promised the people of Okhla that he will probe the Batla House case, and had even distributed hand bills to this effect," the Congress legislator said.

Kejriwal, he said, was now backtracking. "He has betrayed the people of Okhla," said Khan.

Asked for his comments, Kejriwal said there would be no probe into the incident as the court had given its verdict and the case had been closed.

The AAP, which won 28 seats in the Delhi assembly, is in office on the strength of the support given by the eight-member Congress party.

It is also propped up by an independent and a Janata Dal-United legislator. An AAP legislator has since turned a rebel, reducing the AAP's comfort zone in the legislature.