Large number of Punjab AAP MLAs will also join BJP, says Akali Dal leader

Chandigarh, April 24 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia said on Friday that the exodus of seven Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was "long time in the coming" and said a large number of AAP legislators would also join the BJP soon.

Reacting to the development here, the SAD leader said, "The AAP came to power on the promise of changing the system but itself got embroiled in corruption and scams. First the founding members of AAP left it. Now leaders like Sandeep Pathak and Raghav Chadha, who were the architects of AAP in Punjab, have also quit the party along with five other MPs."

Majithia said a large number of AAP legislators were also likely to join the BJP in the coming days.

"The beginning will be made from Jalandhar and Ludhiana and a situation may come in which AAP may become a minority government and fall. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann may also eventually join the BJP to save his ill-gotten wealth, including that which he has transferred to Australia."

Asserting that AAP itself was responsible for this state of affairs, Majithia asked why the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had bestowed Rajya Sabha seats to outsiders.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, said the ongoing split within the Aam Aadmi Party in the Rajya Sabha has laid bare the party's true character, asserting the crisis "is not ideological but rooted in a struggle for control over state's resources and public money".

Bajwa said the developments have confirmed long-standing concerns that AAP's politics in Punjab has been driven less by governance and more by internal competition for access to the state exchequer.

"What is unfolding today is not a clash of principles but a conflict over power, patronage, and money," he added.

Calling out the contradictions within AAP, Congress lawmaker Bajwa said "it is deeply ironic that Raghav Chadha has claimed he could not remain a partner in wrongdoing within the party, while Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has alleged that Chadha and others left because they were not allowed to indulge in corruption".

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