‘Nitish’s exit from INDIA bloc completely unexpected, bowed down to BJP’: Sanjay Singh

On Saturday, Sanjay Singh, an MP for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar are a “world apart.”

After being released from Tihar prison on bail in the excise policy case, he said in an interview with The Indian Express that “Nitish ji bowed down in front of BJP, and Mamata ji is fighting against it.”

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to the Rajya Sabha member in the money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy. He was detained in Tihar prison for about six months before being freed one day later.

Prior to the Lok Sabha polls, he said that the Nitish Kumar’s departure from the Opposition group INDIA was a major blow to the alliance.

The news of Nitish Kumar ji’s leaving came as a great surprise. He was moving about trying to unite opposition groups when all of a sudden he joined the NDA. This kind of side switching affects your reputation. In the near future, you could be able to gain some advantages and power. However, history will not be kind to you if you repeatedly change sides, Singh said.

The AAP leader said that the party is running for 23 seats in the Lok Sabha as a member of the INDIA coalition.

“Our main goal is to make sure that every employee puts up their best effort and is fully committed to the areas we are competing in. When we are not running, our employees will support the INDIA bloc candidates’ campaigns.

Now, there are three to four major problems. The first is that democracy is under imminent danger. Ministers and MLAs are being paid off, and elected governments are falling. Opposition party chief ministers are being imprisoned. The public need to be informed about this and how efforts are being made to put an end to any opposition, he said.

Singh also spoke about his time spent in Tihar, the neighborhood that is presently home to key AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain as well as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

He described the first 11 days as “quite difficult” for him.

I was confined to a tiny cell and was not permitted to leave. I had police protection. I then asked that I be granted the same privileges as other inmates by speaking with the jail management,” he told PTI.

He said that following that, he was given permission to leave under police protection at certain times. They made the decision to let me use the music room and badminton court during certain hours. He said, “Even the food-related issues were addressed.”

The senior party leader said that because he was without a cell phone, he studied books throughout his incarceration.

“During those six months, I studied the works of Bhagat Singh, Dr. (Ram Manohar) Lohia, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. I read more in these six months than I had in the previous six years,” he said.