3 Punjab AAP MLAs Claim They Were Offered Crores To Join BJP

Soon after AAP's lone Lok Sabha MP from Punjab and an MLA joined the BJP on Wednesday, three AAP legislators from the state claimed that they received calls offering them money to join the BJP.

The Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the BJP had "again started Operation Lotus" in Punjab and was trying to break Arvind Kejriwal's party. There was no immediate reaction from the BJP on the allegations.

AAP legislator from Jalalabad Jagdeep Kamboj Goldy claimed that he received a call from one Sewak Singh from an international number on Tuesday with an offer to join the BJP.

Mr Kamboj told reporters that he asked the MLA to join the BJP and said, "'We will give Rs 20-25 crore'. I said I do not need it." Similar claims were made by Balluana MLA Amandeep Singh and Ludhiana South legislator Rajinder Pal Kaur Chhina.

They asserted that they would not leave the party.

Mr Kamboj alleged that the BJP was scared of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. "Where they fail to win people's mandate, they try to buy MLAs, MP and other AAP leaders at any cost," he charged.

"Arvind Kejriwal is the leader who fought against corruption in politics and always did politics of work. But false cases have been registered and many AAP leaders have been sent to jail without any proof," he said.

They are trying to break the Aam Aadmi Party, he claimed.

"If they want to do horse trading, what is the need for an election system in the country? Punjab is a revolutionary state. After Delhi, the people of Punjab elected change.

"They can try all they want" but they won't be able to buy the ideology of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, said Mr Kamboj.

Ludhiana South legislator Chhina too claimed she got a call from one Sewak Singh. It was a call from an international number, she said.

He told me to join the BJP, she alleged.

Balluana MLA Amandeep Singh said he got a call on Tuesday and the person said he was calling from Delhi. "He asked me to join the BJP and offered Rs 45 crore," alleged Amandeep Singh.

The Aam Aadmi Party levelled the allegations on a day its lone Lok Sabha member Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the BJP along with party MLA Sheetal Angural, dealing a blow to the party already facing a crisis following the arrest of its leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Mr Rinku, the MP from Jalandhar in Punjab, and Angural, who was elected to the state Assembly from Jalandhar West, joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and its national general secretary Vinod Tawde.

The parliamentarian had quit the Congress to join AAP last year to fight the bypoll to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP is likely to field him in the Lok Sabha polls as the party has been inducting a number of influential leaders of different parties in Punjab to emerge as a strong force in the state with 13 constituencies.

Three-term Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu from Punjab joined the BJP on Tuesday and asserted that people have made up their mind to elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power again.

Mr Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh who was assassinated in a terror attack while still in office.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)