After AAP Lone Lok Sabha MP Jumps Ship, Saurabh Bharadwaj Accuses BJP of Trying to Break Party

New Delhi: A day after Aam Aadmi Party's lone Lok Sabha MP jumped ship, party leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to break AAP by luring leaders. Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday, March 28, alleged that number of AAP leaders in Punjab have been offered money to join the saffron camp. 

Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged 'Operation Lotus' has started in Punjab, a term often used by opposition parties to describe what they call "poaching" of MLAs by the BJP to topple governments.

Addressing a press conference here, Bharadwaj said AAP MLAs in Punjab had said on Wednesday that the majority of them were getting calls and being offered money, Y category security and tickets for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls to join the BJP. "The BJP is conducting 'Operation Lotus'," he said.

AAP Furious Over Rinku Joining BJP 

Bharadwaj also questioned Rinku's decision to join the BJP. "The BJP stood fourth in (the 2022) Punjab (assembly elections) after AAP, Shriomani Akali Dal and Congress. The question is why did Rinku join the BJP. His tenure as Lok Sabha MP has also ended. The BJP will also come fourth in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha polls," he said.

Rinku, who had been named as the AAP's candidate from Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, joined the BJP on Wednesday along with the party's Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural. Rinku quit the Congress to join the AAP last year to contest the bypoll to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat. He was a vocal critic of the BJP in the Lok Sabha and was even suspended from the House for his unruly protests.

The BJP is likely to field him in the Lok Sabha polls as it inducts a number of influential leaders from different political parties in Punjab to emerge as a strong force in the state that has 13 parliamentary constituencies.