Aam Aadmi Party Slams BJP, says People will Punish Betrayers

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in its first response to the exit of Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha-led seven Parliamentarians, tore into them for betrayal and stated that people of Punjab won’t forget and forgive those “traitors” who stabbed them in their back.

AAP’s top leadership, from party convenor Arvind Kejriwal to Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to senior party leaders, all saw a ‘BJP hand’ in the conspiracy and ripped into it for ‘running a vicious campaign’ to poach its MPs.

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a one-line remark, said, “The BJP has once again given Punjabis a shove.”

Sanjay Singh, AAP’s Leader in Rajya Sabha, came down heavily on the BJP, accusing it of ‘executing’ Operation Lotus, under the leadership of Home Minister Amit Shah, ahead of Assembly elections in Punjab.

Dubbing the party MPs jumping ship to BJP as “traitors”, he said, “Whenever the Aam Aadmi Party has been betrayed, and whenever the people of Punjab and the country have been deceived, the people have responded in return. So, I am saying that the people of Punjab will answer this betrayal and deceit; they will give a fitting reply...”

AAP spokesperson Anurag Dhanda also called it a “betrayal and deception of the highest order” and said that the people of Punjab will hold them accountable for it.

Party’s Punjab unit general secretary Baltej Pannu said that the Central government was systematically using central agencies to weaken the AAP by engineering defection in the party. He accused the BJP central leadership under Amit Shah of using Raghav Chadha as a “tool” to execute this plan. (IANS)

Also Read: Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal join BJP after severing ties with AAP