New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in its first response to the exit of Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha-led seven Parliamentarians, tore into them for betrayal and stated that people of Punjab won’t forget and forgive those “traitors” who stabbed them in their back.

AAP’s top leadership, from party convenor Arvind Kejriwal to Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to senior party leaders, all saw a ‘BJP hand’ in the conspiracy and ripped into it for ‘running a vicious campaign’ to poach its MPs.

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a one-line remark, said, “The BJP has once again given Punjabis a shove.”

Sanjay Singh, AAP’s Leader in Rajya Sabha, came down heavily on the BJP, accusing it of ‘executing’ Operation Lotus, under the leadership of Home Minister Amit Shah, ahead of Assembly elections in Punjab.

Dubbing the party MPs jumping ship to BJP as “traitors”, he said, “Whenever the Aam Aadmi Party has been betrayed, and whenever the people of Punjab and the country have been deceived, the people have responded in return. So, I am saying that the people of Punjab will answer this betrayal and deceit; they will give a fitting reply…”

Launching a tirade at the BJP as well as rebel MPs, Sanjay Singh said, “The people who passed the three controversial farm laws against the farmers of Punjab, by joining that party, will you fight for honesty and truth? In a party where the son of a Union Minister of State is accused of the killing of farmers, and where there are people involved in murder, looting, rape, and crimes, those who have betrayed farmers and stabbed the people of Punjab in the back, do you expect anyone to believe that you will bring about great change and revolution by joining them?”

AAP spokesperson Anurag Dhanda also called it a “betrayal and deception of the highest order” and said that the people of Punjab will hold them accountable for it.

Party’s Punjab unit general secretary Baltej Pannu said that the Central government was systematically using central agencies to weaken the AAP by engineering defection in the party. He accused the BJP central leadership under Amit Shah of using Raghav Chadha as a “tool” to execute this plan.

–IANS

mr/uk