If anyone is a traitor, it’s Arvind Kejriwal, says Swati Maliwal

Defected AAP MP Swati Maliwal on Saturday alleged that her former party had "strayed far" from its original principles, and its leader Arvind Kejriwal is no longer the same. Maliwal, who joined the BJP after defecting, praised the “decisive and strong leadership” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I left my home, lived in slums for seven years, quit my job and supported every movement. But when I tried to file an FIR after being assaulted, I was beaten up at Kejriwal’s residence by his aide,” Maliwal said. She claimed that when she tried to pursue the complaint, she was “threatened and pressured” to withdraw it.She alleged that,"If anyone is a traitor, it’s Arvind Kejriwal."
Maliwal alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party had completely changed and is now known for “lies, corruption and hooliganism.” “The real betrayal is not leaving the party, but not standing by your own principles. People are not leaving out of fear; they are leaving because of Arvind Kejriwal,” she said. She claimed that more leaders would quit the party in the coming days. “No good person can work with him for long. He says one thing and does another,” she said about her former boss.Maliwal said Kejriwal once projected himself as a “common man” but has since changed. “There was a time when he carried a Rs 2 pen and wore simple clothes. Today, only his status has changed,” she said, alleging that he built multiple “sheeshmahals” — a coinage by the BJP to impute a lavish lifestyle to Kejriwal. She also accused Kejriwal of running the Punjab government through “remote control” after AAP’s loss in Delhi.

#WATCH | Delhi | On Arvind Kejriwal, Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal says, "If anyone is a traitor, it’s Arvind Kejriwal. When he started his movement, he wore torn pants, used a two-rupee pen, and drove around in a completely dilapidated car. We were all inspired, thinking that… pic.twitter.com/xYhJ9NabP7

— ANI (@ANI) April 25, 2026

She also claimed that people in Punjab were unhappy with AAP’s style of functioning. “Those who once came on scooters now own big houses, cars and businesses. All this is happening under Kejriwal’s protection,” she alleged. Rejecting claims that leaders were joining the BJP due to fear of agencies like the ED and CBI, she said, “I am not someone who can be scared. I have joined wholeheartedly. If I wanted, I could have joined two years ago.”
Barely a year after losing power to the BJP in Delhi, AAP suffered its greatest jolt on Friday when seven of its Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha and Maliwal, quit the party. The other defectors were Sandeep Pathak, a key face of the party organisation, former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahney.