New Delhi:
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal promised to give tickets to at least five of the six leaders in the next term, provided they quit now if they are not happy in the party due to any reason, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.
Kejriwal had called them to his house this evening to discuss the matter, sources said. But the meeting never happened as the MPs announced their exit earlier in the day.
The inside details come on a day the AAP suffered a jolt after seven of its MPs, including Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak, quit the party, with Chadha saying all of them had merged with the BJP. He alleged the AAP had strayed from its principles and values. Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikram Sahni and Swati Maliwal are the other four MPs who left the AAP.
According to sources, the former Delhi chief minister told the MPs that if “you have any apprehension, you should resign from your posts and you will be given tickets again in the next term.”
Kejriwal, however, didn’t know that the MPs had already made up their mind as early as Thursday morning to leave the AAP and join the BJP.
Before the meeting call with Kejriwal came, the MPs had not come together as a group to plan their exit, though individually all of them had decided to leave, sources said.
The first push from Chadha on making a joint move happened after the AAP replaced him with Ashok Kumar Mittal as the Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha. It was after this development that Chadha reached out and held talks with the MPs, sources said. But Mittal, too, left the AAP.
Coincidentally, Kejriwal moved into his new house only today after a year of living in Mittal’s house.
The BJP gave a warm welcome to the MPs as party president Nitin Nabin offered them traditional sweets.
AAP leaders accused the BJP of launching “Operation Lotus” to poach MPs and of allegedly conspiring to stop the AAP government’s good work in Punjab. Chadha told reporters that the seven MPs had merged with the BJP as the AAP was no longer honouring its founding principles.
“The AAP that I nurtured with my blood and sweat and to which I gave 15 years of my youth has completely strayed from its principles, values and core morals,” he said. “As per the Constitution, two-thirds of the total MPs of a party can merge with another party,” Chadha said, referring to the party’s strength of 10 MPs.
“They have already signed, and this morning we submitted all the required documentation, including signed letters and other formal paperwork, to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha,” Chadha said.
The AAP now faces one of its toughest setbacks 14 years after it was born of protest against corruption.