india

Updated: Jul 27, 2016 23:54 IST

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday he could be killed by a “frustrated” Narendra Modi as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader launched a vitriolic attack on the Prime Minister whom he perceives as his biggest political adversary.

“He (Modi) can go to any extent and may get us killed. He may get me killed as well,” Kejriwal said in a video message in Hindi posted on the party’s official YouTube channel.

Ever since storming back to power in Delhi with a brute majority last year, Kejriwal has repeatedly attacked Modi and the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing them of political vendetta to avenge the electoral defeat in the capital.

Read: ‘Psychopath, coward, liar’: Kejriwal fires away against PM, CBI

In the video message for AAP members, legislators and the “common man”, the AAP national convenor advises party workers to be ready for the “ultimate sacrifice” in the wake of unprecedented crackdown by the BJP government, referring to a series of arrests of AAP MLAs and workers in the last one-and-a-half years.

The BJP hit back at the “pathologically obsessive” Kejriwal over the video, asking him to “go for another detoxification therapy for the body and mind”.

Kejriwal dubbed Modi as the “mastermind” behind the “cycle of oppression” against the AAP and alleged that the BJP government was “conspiring to crush (the) AAP” as it was surging ahead in states like Punjab, Goa and Gujarat.

“Modi and the BJP have failed on every front…Modi is frustrated and angry; he is not thinking logically. I want to tell all (AAP) volunteers, MLAs and ministers that this is a very critical period. You think over it, talk to your families. This is going to get worse in the coming days,” Kejriwal said in the over nine-minute video.

Read: Arvind Kejriwal-Navjot Singh Sidhu: Made for or made like each other?

“Talk to your families and see if you are ready for the ultimate sacrifice. All the MLAs will anyway have to go to jail. If you are ready, then stay with us or if you have weaknesses, then leave.”

This is the sharpest attack on the Prime Minister by the Delhi chief minister since December when he called Modi a “coward” and a “psychopath”.

Kejriwal had then tweeted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) allegedly raided his office on Modi’s direction.

The development comes at a time when the AAP is grappling with multiple cases filed against more than a dozen legislators--ranging from criminal intimidation and molestation to rioting and faking educational qualification.

Read: Kejriwal blames Modi for arrests in ‘fake cases’

The city-state government is also locked in a legal battle with the central government over the administrative control of capital Delhi, besides 21 AAP legislators facing threat of disqualification for allegedly holding office of profits. The Centre has also refused to approve several laws proposed by the AAP government.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said it was Kejriwal who is frustrated and not the Prime Minister.

“He is frustrated by his own incompetence in governing Delhi and lack of result on ground. He is frustrated by criminal actions of his own party MLAs.”