Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed the Centre changed the leadership of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) overnight because the BJP feared the Delhi government's anti-graft body was going to act against a Cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government.

"The BJP feared that the ACB was trying to frame a Cabinet minister . The Centre's move was aimed at pre-empting our move," Kejriwal, in an exclusive hour-long interview with India Today Group Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai, said on Friday.

Dragging Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again into the ACB row, the AAP convener said, "PM Modi is controlling the Delhi government's Home Department by sending Delhi Police personnel there. LK Advani was right in invoking fears of another Emergency. Why else does Modi say he will decide every post from the peon to the Chief Secretary? Is this right?"

Must Watch: Narendra Modi is controlling Delhi government's Home Department, says Arvind Kejriwal



"Ask Modiji to remove the paramilitary forces from the ACB office. We will start getting 15 lakh phone calls a day," Kejriwal told Sardesai, asking why Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung changed the composition of the ACB overnight.

Last month, Jung, a representative of the Centre with whom Kejriwal has been involved in a bitter turf war, replaced government appointee SS Yadav with MK Meena as ACB chief. The move had drawn flak from the AAP government which called Meena's appointment illegal as there was no post of a Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) in the ACB. Meena is a JCP in the Delhi Police.

In retaliation, the AAP government drastically pruned Meena's powers , restricting him to training and monitoring of undertrial cases and assigned the key job of the anti-graft agency - investigations and inquiries - to Yadav.