Aam Aadmi Party accuses BJP of poaching its MLAs

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday accused BJP of luring its legislators in Delhi with an MLA claiming that some members of the saffron party approached him thrice in the last three days.

‘BJP tries to lure opposition MLAs unethically. AAP MLAs refuse,’ the party tweeted. AAP MLA from Rohini, Rajesh 

Garg, has alleged that he was approached by some BJP men thrice since the last three days to leave the party.

‘On 15 June, when we were holding a dharna against government’s drive against e-rickshaws, a man approached me and asked me to join BJP. The next day, another man claiming to be an official of a leading spices company contacted me to join the party.

‘On 17 June, again an old man came to my office and wanted to speak to me in private. He asked me to join BJP. These conversations were recorded by a television channel,’ Garg said.

Earlier, in an interview to a television channel last week, party chief Arvind Kejriwal had alleged that BJP was luring AAP MLAs. In the 70-member 

Delhi Assembly, BJP has 32 MLAs, including Shiromani Akali Dal. AAP has 28 MLAs while Congress has 8. After the Lok Sabha polls, three BJP MLAs — Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Bidhuri and Pravesh Verma — have been elected as MPs, bringing its tally down to 28. To form the government, any party needs to have support of 36 legislators.