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‘Operation Lotus’: Punjab AAP MLAs lodge police complaint against BJP
State finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema, along with 11 MLAs, meets Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav and complains against BJP leaders, saying they are offering ₹25 crore to each legislator to join their party
Aam Aadmi Party leader and Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema, accompanied by 11 AAP MLAs, met director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav in Chandigarh on Wednesday and complained against BJP leaders for trying to topple the state government by offering up to ₹25 crore each to its legislators.
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The development comes a day after Cheema said at a press conference that BJP leaders and agents from Delhi and Punjab have approached at least 10 AAP MLAs over phone under ‘Operation Lotus’ and offered ₹25 crore to each one of them to quit the AAP and join their party. “They are offering to arrange meetings of these MLAs with ‘Babu ji’ and also promising them cabinet ministerial ranks after the BJP forms its government in the state,” he alleged on Tuesday.
Jalandhar AAP MLA claims death threat
On Wednesday, Cheema alleged that the BJP offered money to AAP legislators Sheetal Angural, Dinesh Chadha, Raman Arora, Budh Ram, Kulwant Pandori, Narinder Bharaj, Rajnish Dahiya, Manjit Bilaspur and Labh Singh Ugoke. The MLAs were present at the press conference as he reiterated the allegations against the BJP.
Jalandhar MLA Sheetal Angural was also given a death threat on Tuesday, he said.
Cheema claimed that Talwandi Sabo MLA Baljinder Kaur was also approached.
The MLAs accompanied him to the Punjab DGP’s office.
The minister made the allegations two days after chief minister Bhagwant Mann embarked on an eight-day tour of Germany on Sunday to attract investors to the state.
The AAP had swept the assembly elections in Punjab in March 2022, winning 92 of the 117 seats. The BJP has only two MLAs in the assembly.
BJP misusing investigation agencies: Punjab FM
Cheema accused the BJP of using central investigation agencies to put pressure on AAP legislators. “Wherever the BJP loses, these people form their government by breaking MLAs with the help of CBI, ED and money. They did it in Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh,” he alleged.
Cheema said that after unsuccessfully trying these dirty tricks in Delhi to bring down our government, they (BJP) were now attempting the same in Punjab. He claimed that the BJP had set aside ₹1,375 crore to break away 55 MLAs of the AAP.
Asked for evidence, he said that the party was getting it examined legally and would make it public at an appropriate time.
The minister claimed that the BJP was afraid of (AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind) Kejriwal and its only aim was to stop him by any means.
Shifting blame of rebellion: BJP
The BJP on Tuesday accused the AAP of trying to shift the blame for its own rebellion on it (the BJP) and claimed that all was not well in the AAP. State BJP general secretary Subhash Sharma dismissed Cheema’s allegations as baseless. He claimed that earlier the war and rivalry between Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal was hidden but now it had come out in public.
To divert public attention from the war within, the AAP was trying to resort to its “all-time favourite lies of Operation Lotus”.
The BJP leader said the AAP was collapsing under its own weight as state party MLAs were fed up with undue interference by Delhi leaders Kejriwal and Raghav Chadha.
