New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Friday criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after seven of the latter’s Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha, quit the party to join the BJP. The BJP leaders said that since many of the founding members of the party have left it, AAP’s leadership needs to “self-introspect”.

Speaking to reporters, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said, “This is the moment when the AAP leadership needs to do self-introspection because when another one of the founding members of the party leaves after being angry and disappointed, it is clear that the organisation is being reduced to rubble.”

According to BJP MP Anurag Thakur, “corruption” is the reason why those who founded the AAP have left it one by one.

“The party (AAP) made a record when many of its leaders went to jail within such a short span of time,” he said.

Thakur also echoed that the AAP leadership should introspect the reason behind several of their leaders exiting the party.

He said, “The reason is clear: they were sad in their party. The focus they came with was to fight corruption but when the party (AAP) itself drowned in the same corruption, their leaders are all leaving one by one.”

BJP spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said that AAP leaders have now realised that “the party has deviated from its main goal”.

“Arvind Kejriwal would be left alone,” he added.

Hussain said that several lawmakers leaving the AAP is a clear message that the party’s existence is in “trouble”.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva welcome the AAP MPs’ decision to join the party.

Moreover, Sachdeva predicted that there will be a split in the AAP’s Punjab unit leadership too.

“I feel there will be a major split in Punjab, because the people of Punjab are troubled by the governance of the Aam Aadmi Party. Even the local leaders there have become frustrated with the administration of (Chief Minister) Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal,” he said.

Blaming Kejriwal for AAP’s split, BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh told IANS, “Arvind Kejriwal has been engaging in politics of corruption, loot, and syndicates. Today, the Aam Aadmi Party is trapped in its own web.”

–IANS

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