New Delhi, 28 March 2024
AAP senior leader and Delhi Cabinet Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj today slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for poaching AAP MLAs in Punjab by offering them money, security, and positions to join the BJP. He stated how the BJP has launched ‘Operation Lotus’ in Delhi and Punjab to topple the AAP governments right after their motive of arresting Shri Arvind Kejriwal was accomplished.
Addressing a press conference held at the party headquarters, the AAP senior leader Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said about five months back when Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal was served the first summons on 28th October 2023 to appear before the ED on 2nd November 2023, Shri Arvind Kejriwal has been reiterating that the prime motive of the BJP was not the excise policy case, their main aim was to get him arrested. Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said as soon as the CM was arrested, they wanted that the AAP MLAs from Delhi and Punjab should somehow be brought into the BJP, the (AAP) party should be broken, the government should be toppled, and the AAP should completely collapse. The BJP understands that despite millions of efforts, the AAP cannot be defeated in the elections in Delhi and Punjab, added the minister.
“If I talk about Punjab, there are mainly four parties in Punjab. The AAP is on the first number, Congress and Akali (Shiromani Akali Dal) are somewhere on second”and third position, and BJP is on the fourth position. Everyone knows that the fourth political party in Punjab is the BJP, they have nothing (no support) left in Punjab. After the Farmers’ Movement, whatever little respect they had in Punjab has also been lost. Boards were put up outside the villages of Punjab stating that the BJP must not enter. The farmers of Punjab are extremely angry with the BJP, it can also be said that Punjab hates the BJP,” said Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj.
He added that the question arises that if the BJP’s condition is so bad in Punjab, then why did the BJP poach AAP’s MP and MLAs yesterday? “We were also told by our MLAs in Punjab that many MLAs were offered huge amount of money to join the BJP, they were offered Y+ security, they were offered big positions, the BJP even talked about letting them contest elections on their ticket in the Parliamentary elections,” said the AAP senior leader.
“I understand that people often switch parties, sometimes it happens that you are in a party whose current condition might not be good, you go to another party whose prospects are better. However, it is beyond my understanding to expect this to happen in Punjab. Sushil Kumar Rinku’s tenure as Member of Parliament has already concluded. The model code of conduct is in place. He can do only one thing now, which is to contest elections. You can ask anyone for an assessment, one thing is certain, that the BJP will still be at the fourth position, no matter what they do. What I fail to understand is that wh would any MP switch parties to bag the fourth position?,” he said.
The senior AAP minister further accused the BJP of offering money, security, and positions to AAP MLAs in Punjab to switch parties. “Yesterday, three of our MLAs from Punjab, Amandeep Singh Musafir (MLA Balluana), Rajinder Pal Kaur Chhina (MLA Ludhiana), and Jagdeep Kamboj Goldy (MLA Jalalabad), told the media that not only these three, but majority of our MLAs in Punjab received calls from the BJP and were lured to join the BJP. I believe what Arvind Kejriwal was saying earlier has turned out to be true today. The BJP has started ‘Operation Lotus’ to break the AAP and to topple our governments in Delhi and Punjab,” he said.
Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said we are proud of our MLAs that they immediately informed the party leadership about this and yesterday they held a press conference. I know that in our last press conference, we were asked about the details of the caller, what was the time of the call and what was the phone number?
Revealing the phone number that was used to make the calls to the AAP MLAs, Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj stated, “Our MLAs have shared this phone number which was used to make the calls. I have been informed that they have more information and evidence on this. I would like you to see this number for yourself.”
