A day after a war of words erupted on social media between AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Vijay Goel over alleged horse-trading, a sitting AAP legislator defected to the BJP on Friday.
Gandhi Nagar MLA Anil Kumar Bajpai left AAP’s fold before being inducted into the BJP. The development came even as BJP sources claimed “between 7 to 14 sitting AAP MLAs” were in touch with senior leaders from the party’s Delhi unit to jump ship “at the earliest”.
“The BJP has decided to take baby steps in regards to inducting more AAP MLAs into its Delhi unit as it sought to reap the electoral benefits of letting AAP continue presenting a third political front in the Capital and ensure a split of votes between us and the Congress at least till the conclusion of the Lok Sabha election,” said insiders.
At his induction ceremony, Mr. Bajpai, in addition to denying allegations of having received “payment” to switch sides, accused Mr. Kejriwal of indulging in name-calling and “suffocating” his legislative colleagues. Party sources said Mr. Bajpai had been in touch with a senior party leader “over the last four days and requested that he be inducted at the earliest”.
Sources also claimed that Mr. Bajpai, prior to reaching out to the BJP, had a meeting with “20 disgruntled AAP MLAs” who too wanted to switch to the BJP.
“I have joined the BJP because I am influenced by the policies of PM Narendra Modi and the BJP. I was offended when Mr. Kejriwal and the Congress raised questions on the surgical strike,” Mr. Bajpai said at the ceremony.
‘CM calls MLAs fools’
“During the 15 years of my political life, firstly, I worked for the Congress. After that, when Mr. Kejriwal started the fight against corruption of the Congress, I joined AAP. But, Mr. Kejriwal calls his MLAs tuchha [insignificant] donkey and fools... many MLAs of AAP are feeling suffocated,” he alleged, adding that he would “retire from politics” if anyone could prove that “he had taken money” to join the BJP.
Hours before Mr. Bajpai joined the BJP, Mr. Kejriwal had taken to Twitter to allege that the BJP was engaging in horse-trading. “Modi ji, Will you make governments in each state ruled by a party in opposition to you fall by buying its MLAs? And from where do you get the funds to purchase so many MLAs? You people have tried to buy our MLAs many times in the past. It is not that easy to buy people from AAP [sic.],” Mr. Kejriwal had tweeted.
In response, Mr. Goel had said, “Kejriwal ji , had you purchased Guggan Singh, your North West Delhi candidate from the BJP? Did you buy Vidhan Sabha Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Fateh Singh, Bhawna Gaur, Naresh Balyan before fielding them from your party? Do not reduce the level of politics [through such allegations].”
‘BJP offered ₹5 crore’
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “It is an old dirty trick of the BJP to lure MLAs of opponents by offering crores of rupees. Our honest PM never explains the source of this money... We had exposed the BJP in 2014 through a video sting operation in which their Delhi vice-president Sher Singh Dagar was offering ₹5 crore to our Sangam Vihar MLA to switch sides to the BJP.”
Speaking on Mr. Bajpai, Mr. Bharadwaj added, “Traders in Gandhi Nagar have faced sealing & losses in business due to BJP’s Central Govt & it’s MCD. By joining BJP, he has not only deceived AAP but also cheated trader Community in Gandhi Nagar [sic].”
Minutes before he joined the party, another AAP MLA, Alka Lamba, had taken to Twitter to refer to a conversation she had had with Mr. Bajpai, without naming him.
“There are reports of an AAP legislator going to the BJP, I spoke to them, am very dejected and concerned, argued that we stay within the party and continue our fight from within, continue serving the people, but I was told that it is difficult for them to forget the fact that they were called a donkey in a public meeting and asked what their worth was [sic],” she tweeted.
