Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar on Thursday dismissed AAP MLAs' allegations that they were offered money to join the saffron party, saying he was "amazed at their audacity".
As AAP's lone Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku and Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural joined the BJP on Wednesday, three ruling party MLAs claimed they were offered money to jump ship. The AAP alleged the BJP had "again started Operation Lotus" in Punjab and was trying to break the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
'Operation Lotus' is a term used by opposition parties to describe what they call "poaching" of MLAs by the BJP to topple governments.
"I am amazed at their audacity. They are so thick-skinned and they are teaching morality," Jakhar told reporters here in response to a question on allegations levelled by the AAP MLAs. Jakhar urged the Election Commission to order a probe into Rs 25-crore-offer allegations made by the AAP legislators so that the people of Punjab can know the truth.
"Truth must come out and I will urge the Commission to investigate and ascertain before people of Punjab as to who made the offer and who got the money," Jakhar said as he underlined that "falsehood and corruption" of Kejriwal's 'kattar imaandaars' have been fully exposed and there is no place to hide.
Jalalabad MLA Jagdeep Kamboj Goldy had claimed that one Sewak Singh called him from an international number on Tuesday with an offer to join the BJP. He claimed he was offered Rs 20-25 crore but he told the caller that "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.
Jakhar was addressing a press conference here after the party's core committee meeting along with the party's Punjab in-charge and former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
Replying to a media query, Jakhar said the Enforcement Directorate has been consistently working to bring "blatant acts of omission and commission perpetrated" by Kejriwal and his chosen ones on the future of Punjab and Punjabis.
Slamming the language used by AAP leaders against Rinku and Angural, the state BJP president said this reeks of their frustration at leaders and people from all parties trusting the development agenda of BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
Meanwhile, Rinku slammed the AAP government in Punjab over the law and order situation and the drug menace. Speaking at a press conference, Rinku also accused the AAP of not fulfilling the promises it made before the 2023 Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll. "The party's national leader had promised people in Jalandhar that heaps of garbage would be cleared once they sent our candidate to the Lok Sabha. You (media) can send your teams to Model Town in Jalandhar to see for yourselves (what has been done)," Rinku said. "It was a small promise. There are many promises which were not fulfilled," he added.
Rinku further claimed roads were broken and wastewater was overflowing in Jalandhar. On the law and order situation in Punjab, Rinku claimed people were receiving ransom calls from criminals. "Traders are feeling scared today," he said. Rinku claimed drugs were "easily available" in the state and "cable mafia was still operating in the state".
Hitting out at the AAP, Angural raised questions on the allegations levelled by the party in September 2022 that the BJP had offered Rs 20-25 crore each to 10 of its MLAs in an attempt to topple the Mann government in the state.
LEADERS FROM PATIALA JOIN BJP
Several former Congress leaders from Patiala district under the leadership of Patiala MP Preneet Kaur joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Punjab President Sunil Jakhar and Punjab Incharge Vijay Rupani at the Chandigarh office on Thursday.
Addressing the media, Preneet Kaur said, "Impressed by the pro-people policies of PM Narendra Modi's government, people of Punjab are regularly joining the Bharatiya Janata Party by leaving other parties. I feel honoured to be a part of such a people-centric party and I welcome all these leaders of Patiala district who have joined the BJP today." She said the entire Punjab BJP unit under the leadership of Sunil Jakhar and Vijay Rupani is working hard.
Jakhar said, "I welcome all the new members who have joined the BJP and I am sure that the party will be further strengthened by their joining. I also welcome MP Patiala Preneet Kaur who has for the first time come to our state office after joining the BJP."
Sheetal Angural resigns as Punjab MLA
A day after joining the BJP, Sheetal Angural on Thursday tendered his resignation as MLA from the Punjab Assembly. Angural was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator from the Jalandhar West. In a letter sent to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Angural said, “I hereby submit my resignation from membership of legislative assembly Punjab (MLA) with immediate effect.” Angural, along with AAP Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku, had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday. Angural won the Jalandhar West assembly seat by defeating Sushil Rinku of Congress during the 2022 assembly elections. Rinku had last year moved to the AAP from the Congress and became the Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar after winning a bypoll.
