New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed on Wednesday that the BJP has approached four of its legislators in Delhi, asking them to switch sides and join the saffron party or else, face "false cases, the CBI and the ED".
Addressing a press conference here, AAP's national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the MLAs — Ajay Dutt, Sanjeev Jha, Somnath Bharati and Kuldeep Kumar — have been approached by leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with whom they have "friendly relations".
Taking to Twitter, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said it is "a very serious matter" and a meeting of the party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) has been convened at his residence at 4 pm to "take stock of the situation and chalk out further strategy".
"They (the four AAP legislators) have been offered Rs 20 crore each if they join the BJP and Rs 25 crore if they bring other MLAs along with them," Singh said.
"They (BJP leaders) told our MLAs that if they do not accept the offer and join the BJP, they will also have to face false cases, the CBI and the ED like (Delhi Deputy Chief Minister) Manish Sisodia is facing," he added.
Singh accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making efforts to bring AAP legislators into the BJP-fold "by hook or crook" and topple the Kejriwal government. "Modiji is trying to make AAP MLAs break away from the party and topple the Delhi government by misusing probe agencies, sending his people to offer money to them and threaten them of consequences if they do not switch sides," he said.