NEW DELHI: With seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs in the Rajya Sabha crossing over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress on Monday alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's mask had come off, calling it a party of billionaires that allocated Rajya Sabha seats based on money.
Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken accused the AAP of functioning as a proxy for the BJP to counter the Congress in states like Punjab and Gujarat. He questioned how the BJP would explain six Punjab MPs joining a party that received just over six percent of votes in the Punjab assembly polls.
"I have always said AAP is the B-team of the BJP. They should change their name from Aam Aadmi Party to 'Arabpati Aadmiyon ki party' (party of billionaires)," Maken said at a press conference. He claimed that Sushil Gupta, a former Congress member, had told him before leaving the Congress that his arrangement with the AAP was finalized and he would receive a Rajya Sabha seat.
Maken asserted that AAP did not give Rajya Sabha seats to Prashant Bhushan, Ashutosh, or Yogendra Yadav but did so for money. He alleged that the party is "anti-national" as it received funds from separatist elements in Punjab. He further claimed that the net worth of each of the seven MPs who left AAP for BJP amounts to 81,85,03,542 rupees.
These remarks came on the day Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially accepted the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP, reducing AAP's strength in the Upper House to three. The BJP's Rajya Sabha strength increased to 113. The seven MPs are Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta. The Rajya Sabha website now lists them as BJP MPs.
The seven MPs had submitted a petition to the Chairman on Friday seeking recognition as BJP MPs, which was accepted. Meanwhile, AAP filed a petition on Sunday seeking termination of their membership. AAP MP Sanjay Singh confirmed submitting a disqualification petition. On Friday, the seven MPs announced their merger with the BJP, alleging that AAP had strayed from its principles and core ideals.
