New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said on Friday that two of its rebel MLAs, who reportedly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, have told the Delhi Assembly Speaker that they were with AAP and did not join the BJP.
The chief spokesperson of AAP, Saurabh Bharadwaj, said that on May 3 and 6, the senior leadership of the BJP, including Shyam Jaju, Vijay Goel and Vijendra Gupta, claimed that two AAP MLAs -- Anil Bajpai and Colonel Devinder Sehrawat -- had left AAP and joined the BJP.
"Yesterday when Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel sought a reply from the two MLAs on the disqualification petition, they said on oath that they have not joined the BJP and continue to be in Aam Aadmi Party," Bhardwaj said.
He said that in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP's horsetrading was in full display. After the elections, Bharadwaj, who's also an MLA, had filed a petition for disqualifying the two MLAs. Playing videos of BJP's press conferences held on May 3 and 6, Bharadwaj said that entire Delhi witnessed the joining ceremony of these two MLAs.
"The BJP even issued a press release to inform the media that the two MLAs have joined their party. Yet, yesterday on sworn affidavits Anil Bajpai and Devinder Sehrawat have said 'I am in Aam Aadmi Party and I have not joined the BJP'," he said.
Bharadwaj said the lawyers who have for long represented the BJP in several matters were representing the two concerned MLAs in front of the Speaker's proceedings on Thursday.
"They said that the two MLAs were part of the Aam Aadmi Party and that the newspapers which reported that the two had defected to the BJP were lying," Bharadwaj said.
Displaying the newsclips which he has submitted to the Speaker, Bharadwaj said the lawyers claimed that the reports were false and have asked that the reporters who filed these stories and their editors be summoned to the Assembly for cross-examination as witnesses.
--IANS nks/arm (336 Words) 13070013 NNNN
