Kejriwal calls special House session, to meet AAP MLAs too amid horse-trading claims against BJP

According to a document issued by the Delhi Assembly, the session, likely to be a stormy one, is scheduled to be held on Friday, starting 11am.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on Wednesday called a special session of the Assembly on Friday amid a political row over claims that the BJP is trying to lure his party's MLAs. Kejriwal has also called a meeting of all party MLAs at his residence on Thursday to discuss the current political scenario.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. (File)

According to a document issued by the Delhi Assembly, the session, likely to be a stormy one, is scheduled to be held on Friday, starting 11am.

The AAP and the BJP have been at loggerheads - first over the issue of freebies, then over CBI raids on party leader and Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. The AAP has now accused the BJP of trying to lure its MLAs amid Kejriwal's growing popularity ahead of the upcoming polls, alleging that four MLAs were offered money by the saffron camp to quit the party.

Earlier in the day, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the BJP of allegedly offering ₹20 crore to party MLAs to "bring down" the Kejriwal-led government in the national capital.

"BJP offered to bring down Kejriwal's government by luring AAP MLAs with ₹20-20 crores... slogans of '50 Khokha-50 Khokha' were raised in Maharashtra Assembly. Hence, I would say to the BJP ‘band karo desh se dhokha, nahi chalega 50 khoka’," Bharadwaj said during a press conference in Delhi.

Sisodia had earlier said that he had been asked to quit the party and engineer a split in AAP in exchange of withdrawal of all cases against him. The CBI has initiated a probe against him in the now-withdrawn Delhi excise policy that was launched last year.