Chandigarh: Days after Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) humiliating rout in the Delhi assembly election, the party supremo Arvind Kejriwal has summoned the chief minister and legislators of the only AAP-ruled state, Punjab, on Tuesday, amid the rumours of defection in the party.
Pertinently, the said meeting comes in the backdrop of recent claims of senior Congress leader and Punjab leader of Opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa that about 30 AAP MLAs were in contact with the Congress.
Bajwa had also claimed the party Delhi leadership may now also want to replace Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, as all the MLAs in the state are aligned with party supremo Kejriwal. Bajwa further held that since a by-election is due in Ludhiana (west) assembly constituency, Kejriwal might contest from there to join Punjab state assembly.
The meet in Delhi has been scheduled for Tuesday after deferring the state Cabinet meeting; it was first scheduled for February 6 and was rescheduled for February 10, but it has now been postponed to February 13.
AAP HITS BACK AT BAJWA
Meanwhile, reacting to Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa's claims that ``30 AAP MLAs are in contact with Congress,’’ AAP hit back saying that even Bajwa’s own party MLAs are not in touch with him.
Rebuffing Bajwa, the AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang questioned him, ``Are all Congress MLAs in touch with you? If they are, where is Sandeep Jakhar? Why did Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal leave the party?" Kang went on to add that Bajwa's own brother, Fatehjang Bajwa, left him and joined the BJP, and he could not stop him.
He added that Bajwa is daydreaming, Bajwa is known for making baseless statements, and his claims never turn out to be true. Kang also remarked that the current state of Congress is such that, despite winning zero seats in Delhi, their leaders were celebrating in their office, dancing, and distributing sweets over BJP's victory.
For record, in the recently held polls in Delhi, the BJP had trounced AAP by winning 48 seats in the 70-member House. The AAP won 22 seats while Congress failed to open its account for the third consecutive time. In 2022 Punjab assembly elections, the AAP had won with a landslide win with 92 seats in the 117-member assembly.
