With seven Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) defecting from the party to merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), senior Congress leader Ajay Maken on Monday renewed his attack on the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, saying it has turned into a party of billionaires who give up Rajya Sabha seats in exchange for money.
“The mask has completely fallen off the face of the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal,” said Maken, who has long been a vocal critic of the AAP, which was born out of the 2011 anti-corruption movement that targeted Manmohan Singh’s government at the Center and Sheila Dikshit’s government in Delhi.
The AAP’s seven Rajya Sabha MPs – Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Rajender Gupta, Vikram Sahni, Harbhajan Singh (all from Punjab) and Swati Maliwal (Delhi), quit the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday and announced their merger with the BJP. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat on Monday began counting the seven as BJP legislators, taking the ruling party’s strength in the Upper House to 113.
The AAP has now been reduced to just three MPs in the Rajya Sabha.
McCain also criticized the BJP, pointing out that the party, which received only 6.6% of the popular vote in the recent Punjab elections, will now have six MPs in the Rajya Sabha.
“I have always said that AAP is the B team of BJP. They should change their name from Aam Aadmi Party to Arabpati Aadmiyon ki (Billionaires’ Party),” the Congress party treasurer said, accusing Kejriwal of ignoring the party’s original supporters.
“This party did not give the Rajya Sabha seat to Prashant Bhushan, Ashutosh, Yogendra Yadav or even Kumar Vishwas. But the seats were given to the rich. So, if it is done on the basis of money, then this is bound to happen,” Maken added. “Before coming to the press conference, I did some research. On the basis of election affidavits, I found out that the average net worth of those seven who left AAP for BJP comes $He said: 818,50,35,420.
Maken also claimed that Sushil Gupta, one of the seven rebel MPs, who left the Congress to join the AAP, had done so to get the Rajya Sabha seat, “He told me before leaving the Congress that his ‘grooming’ with the AAP was done and that he would be given the Rajya Sabha seat.”
With elections looming in Punjab next February, McCain also linked the weakness of the PJD to the potential rise of divisive forces in the border state.
He added, “Punjab is a border state and plays a crucial role in protecting our borders. It has also witnessed attempts in the past by external forces to support separatist elements and create unrest. Now, once again, these separatist forces, those who want to divide the country and separate Punjab, have begun to raise their heads.”
