New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Friday termed the resignation of seven of its Rajya Sabha MPs a “betrayal of Punjab”, accusing the BJP of engineering the split, and using fear of central agencies to poach its leaders.
The party said the people of Punjab would not forgive those who “stabbed the state in the back” after being elevated to Parliament.
In a post on X, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said, “The BJP has once again betrayed Punjabis.”
Earlier in the day, AAP Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak, addressing a joint press conference, announced their exit from the party to join the BJP.
Chadha claimed that nearly two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs had quit the party and would function as a separate faction.
He said several leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal and cricketer-turned-politician Harbhajan Singh, had also resigned from the AAP.
According to Chadha, seven out of AAP’s 10 Rajya Sabha MPs have quit the party.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia said the MPs who “bowed before the BJP” and betrayed the people of Punjab due to “fear, greed and personal compulsions” would not be forgiven by the state.
“Punjab never forgives traitors,” Sisodia said.
He said that while party workers in Gujarat were risking their lives to strengthen AAP’s ideology, some leaders chose to become turncoats.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh accused the top BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, of trying to weaken the party by poaching its leaders.
“They have betrayed the people of Punjab. The people of Punjab must remember these seven names. They will never forgive those who have betrayed the state,” Singh said.
He said that the AAP and the people of Punjab helped these leaders rise from the grassroots to Parliament, but they “stabbed Punjab in the back.”
The very person on whom the ED was conducting raids until a few days back is now in the BJP, he said, adding, “This, then, implies that this is ‘Operation Lotus’.”
AAP national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda alleged that central agencies were being used to create fear among party leaders.
He claimed that an Enforcement Directorate raid was recently conducted at the residence of one of the MPs.
“The BJP has broken the AAP through a conspiracy. These MPs had issues with the party, but they forgot that they were sent to the Rajya Sabha by the AAP,” Dhanda said.
PTI
