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'Gaddar' graffiti on walls, posters torn in protests against AAP MPs after BJP merger
The protestors wrote the term “gaddar (traitor)” on the outer walls and the main gate of former cricketer Harbhajan Singh's residence in Jalandhar.
A day after seven Aam Aadmi Party MPs from the Rajya Sabha, led by Raghav Chadha, merged with the BJP, workers from AAP staged protests against former party leaders.
Among the seven leaders who quit AAP were Rajya Sabha MPs Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak. The protesting party workers on Saturday termed the MPs who merged with the BJP “traitors”.
The workers wrote spray-painted the term “gaddar (traitor)” on the outer walls and the main gate of former cricketer Singh's residence in Jalandhar and Pathak's house in Ludhiana, as well as outside the main entrance of the Phagwara campus of Lovely Professional University, owned by Mittal. The protestors were also seen defacing Mittal's poster outside the LPU campus, and raised slogans like ‘Punjab de Gaddar’, while accusing them of betraying the people of Punjab, PTI news agency reported.
Apart from Singh and Mittal, Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha, Swati Maliwal, Vikram Singh Sahney, Sandeep Pathak and Rajinder Gupta also left AAP. The MPs will retain their Rajya Sabha memberships, given that they make up 2/3 rd of AAP's strength while deciding to merge with the BJP.
Videos of protests held across Punjab against the MPs were shared by the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday.
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“The traitors of Punjab are facing backlash across the entire state. Sharp protest demonstrations held at various places against the Rajya Sabha members who fell at the feet of BJP by betraying Punjab; people also chanted slogans against these members as well as BJP's anti-Punjab policies,” AAP's Punjab unit said in a post on X.
Leading a protest outside the residence of MP Rajinder Guptal, AAP Punjab youth wing acting president Parminder Goldy said the BJP was “unsettled” by AAP's governance, and is “attempting to destabilise” the party, PTI reported.
AAP leaders have alleged that Chadha and the other six MPs had left the party “out of fear”, with some also terming it as “Operation Lotus.”
‘Left not out of fear but disgust’: Chadha
In response to criticism from the AAP leaders, Chadha said that the seven MPs had left the Aam Aadmi Party “not out of fear but after being disappointed.”
“And those who are saying this, especially the Aam Aadmi Party leaders, that we left the Aam Aadmi Party out of fear, we left the Aam Aadmi Party not out of fear but after being disappointed with the Aam Aadmi Party. We left not out of fear but disgusted with the Aam Aadmi Party,” ANI news agency cited Chadha as saying.
Chadha had, after his exit from AAP, alleged that the party had deviated from its morals and principles. “Every honest, hardworking person feels that there is no longer room for work in the Aam Aadmi Party. And the Aam Aadmi Party is now walking on a wrong path that no one wants to be associated with,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
