Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Gandhi Nagar Anil Bajpai quit his party and joined the BJP on Friday.
“I worked with the AAP for many years. I was hurt by the lack of respect and the peculiar functioning of the party. AAP has deviated from its original path,” Bajpai said.
The move comes at a time when AAP leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, have accused the BJP of indulging in horse trading.
Bajpai joined the BJP in the presence of party national vice-president and Delhi BJP in-charge Shyam Jaju and Union Minister Vijay Goel at the Delhi unit office here.
Earlier Kejriwal had hit out at Vijay Goel for saying that 14 AAP lawmakers were in touch with the BJP and ready to switch loyalty. On Wednesday, Manish Sisodia had claimed seven AAP MLAs had been offered Rs 10 crore each to join the BJP.
“Modi ji, will you topple every Government run by an Opposition party by buying lawmakers? Is this your definition of democracy? And from where do you bring so much money to buy MLAs? You have tried to buy our MLAs many times. Buying AAP leaders is not easy,” the Delhi Chief Minister said in a tweet.
Vijay Goel had refuted Sisodia’s allegation of the BJP offering Rs. 10 crore to lawmakers to switch and said AAP lawmakers wanted to quit their party out of “frustration and humiliation”, so the BJP “did not need to buy them”. “The lawmakers want to leave AAP because the party has strayed from its objectives,” Goel claimed.
“Goel, baat kahan phasi hai? Aap kitna de rahe ho? Woh kitna mang rahe hain. (Where are your talks (with the AAP lawmakers) stuck? How much are you paying? How much are they demanding?)” Kejriwal had tweeted.
Reacting to the development, senior AAP leader Gopal Rai said his party has for sometime been accusing the BJP of trying to “buy” its MLAs. “As far as Bajpai is concerned, no person would say that they have taken money and going to another party, they would be finding faults within the party. Bajpai had himself come from the Congress, so what issue did he have from the alliance talks that were going on?” he asked. AAP’s Chandni Chowk MLA, Alka Lamba who has been sidelined within the party following differences with Kejriwal and other leaders, claimed that Bajpai was insulted repeatedly and he quit the party out of self-respect. “Bajpai’s decision to join the BJP would negatively impact the AAP more than him. The party insulted him on multiple occasions. His age and physical disability was not even taken into consideration by the party. The AAP MLA has taken this step not for money but for self-respect. The AAP should definitely think over it,” she said.