The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday claimed that it has evidence to prove that the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to lure its MLAs by offering them Rs 5 crore in order to topple the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi.
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj made the statement at a press conference in Delhi. During the press conference, he showed a purported report telecast by the news channel Aaj Tak.
In the purported video, news anchor Anjana Om Kashyap spoke of a sting operation that allegedly revealed that an MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party was offered Rs 4 crore to join the BJP.
Scroll.in cannot verify the authenticity of the video.
“In 2014, Aam Aadmi Party had exposed Operation Lotus’,” Bhardwaj told the reporters. “And now again in 2022, we will expose it.”
Operation Lotus is a term used to refer to the BJP’s alleged attempts to orchestrate defections of Opposition party legislators.
Bharadwaj made the claim a day after Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the BJP had offered to close all cases against him if he joined the outfit.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a first information report against 15 persons, including Sisodia, alleging irregularities in the Delhi government’s new liquor policy. On August 19, the central agency had raided Sisodia’s official residence in central Delhi and 20 other locations in seven states and Union territories in connection with the case.
On Monday, Sisodia claimed he told the BJP he was a descendant of 16th century ruler Maharana Pratap and a Rajput by caste, and that he would not bow down before “corrupt conspirators” even if his head was cut off.
On Tuesday, Bhardwaj told reporters that Operation Lotus failed for the second time in Delhi.
“They launched a campaign against the excise policy, conducted a CBI raid, and when nothing was found, the BJP called Manish ji and offered to make him the chief ministerial candidate,” Bhardwaj said. “But they failed again.”
Bhardwaj said that the moment voters “reject” the BJP and choose another party, the outfit starts hatching a plan for its exit.
“This is called Operation Lotus,” he said. “We saw it happening [toppling state governments] in Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and recently in Maharashtra.”
Kejriwal, who was in Bhavnagar on Tuesday, said that Sisodia will face increasing pressure from investigating agencies as the Aam Aadmi Party has received massive support in Gujarat, NDTV reported.
“We heard that Sisodia-ji will be arrested in 10 days,” Kejriwal said. “Seeing your enthusiasm, it appears that he might be arrested in two or three days.”
‘They get their own workers to make calls,’ says BJP
Meanwhile, the BJP said that Sisodia is making the claims to deflect everyone’s attention from corruption charges levelled against him, NDTV reported.
“The people would like some answers from AAP on their liquor policy, which caused huge losses,” said BJP leader Parvesh Verma.
On being asked about the bribe the party allegedly offered to Sisodia, Verma said: “They [AAP] get their own workers to make phone calls. Their claims cannot be taken seriously.”
The excise policy 2021-’22, formulated on the basis of an expert committee report, came into effect in November. However, the Delhi government temporarily withdrew it on July 30.
On Tuesday, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya asked why the Aam Aadmi Party government reversed the policy.
He shared a video on Twitter in which an unidentified man claims that he and others were asked to call Aam Aadmi Party MLAs on behalf of senior BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari to defect from the party in exchange for money.
“If Arvind Kejriwal is done nominating Satyendar Jain for Padma Vibhushan, Sisodia for Bharat Ratna and himself for Oscars, he should explain why the new liquor excise policy was reversed immediately after inquiry was ordered, how much bribe was received and total loss to the Delhi government,” Malviya wrote.
On Monday, Kejriwal had said that Sisodia deserves a Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, for his work as the education minister of Delhi.
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