- Friday, April 18, 2025
The Aam Aadmi Party leader reminded that while the PM had made 75 years as the age of retirement for his party’s elected representatives, would the rule apply for himself when he attains that age in 2025.
By: Shubham Ghosh
ARVIND KEJRIWAL, one of India’s prominent opposition leaders who was released on an interim bail by the country’s Supreme Court in connection with a liquor policy scam on Friday (10), launched a scathing attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and prime minister Narendra Modi at a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday (11).
Kejriwal, who is the chief minister of the city-state of Delhi and leads the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), asked who was the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, leaving many in the meeting surprised, since the Hindu nationalist has been fighting national and even state elections under Modi for the last decade.
“While the BJP keeps on asking the INDIA bloc parties as to who their Prime Minister candidate is going to be, I ask the saffron party who is their PM candidate?”
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INDIA bloc stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance which comprises more than two dozen parties that aim to prevent Modi and his BJP-led National Democratic Alliance from coming to power for a rare third consecutive term.
Kejriwal went on to ask whether Modi will be retiring in 2025 since he will turn 75 on September 17 that year.
“PM Modi is turning 75, on 17th September. He made a rule that leaders in the party would retire after 75 years. Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan, and Yashwant Sinha were retired and now PM Modi is going to retire on 17th September,” he said.
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“If their government is formed, they will first dispose of Yogi Adityanath and then make Amit Shah the prime minister of the country. PM Modi is asking for votes for Amit Shah. Will Amit Shah fulfil Modi’s guarantee?” Kejriwal, who went to a temple to start the day before resuming his campaign for the ongoing national elections, further asked.
He asked who would deliver Modi’s guarantee and whether that man would be Amit Shah, the current home minister, who is 59.
The Modi era saw the BJP setting 75 as the age for retirement for an elected representative in the party and former ministers Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and other senior leaders were retired under that rule.
A similar question was raised by Revanth Reddy, chief minister of the southern state of Telangana, on Saturday. The leader of the Indian National Congress, which came to power in the state last year, asked in a press conference in state capital Hyderabad that while Modi took the decision to retire older leaders after they turned 75, would the same apply for him when he attains that age.
