AAP's mask is off, gave RS seats for money: Congress

With seven AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha crossing over to the BJP, the Congress on Monday alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's has been working as the BJP's ''B-team'' to counter the Congress in states like Punjab and Gujarat, and its ''mask'' is now off. Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been giving Rajya Sabha party tickets to the rich and wealthy in exchange for money and should thus change its name to the ''Arabpati Aadmiyon ki Party (party of billionaires)''. He also asked other alliance partners of the INDIA bloc to see through AAP's intentions and said that it is clear that AAP was working as a ''proxy to the BJP''. He admitted that it was a ''big mistake'' by the Congress to support the AAP's 40-day government in Delhi in 2014, due to which it ''stayed on'' in Delhi. ''The mask has completely come off the face of AAP and Arvind Kejriwal,'' he said. ''The Aam Aadmi Party is the B team of the BJP. The leaders of AAP are traitors to the country,'' he alleged at a press conference here. Maken claimed that an analysis of the affidavits of AAP's 7 MPs, who have now gone to the BJP, reveals that the average net worth per Rajya Sabha MP comes to over Rs 818 crore. ''The net worth of each MP of those seven who have left AAP for BJP comes to Rs 818,50,35,420,'' he claimed. ''In reality, this is the party of billionaires. They should change their name from Aam Aadmi Party to 'Arabpati Aadmiyon ki Party' (party of billionaires)','' Maken said. The Congress leader said the BJP received only 6 per cent votes in the assembly elections in Punjab, but it now has six MPs in the Rajya Sabha from the state. Maken also alleged that AAP got money from separatist elements in Punjab and called the ruling party in Punjab ''anti-national''. Noting that Punjab is a border state and plays a crucial role in safeguarding the frontiers, he said it also witnessed attempts in the past by external forces to support separatist elements and create unrest. ''Now, once again, such separatist forces, those who want to divide the country and separate Punjab, are beginning to raise their heads.'' Asked why the Congress struck an alliance with AAP, which was also part of the INDIA bloc, if it believed that AAP was a ''proxy for the BJP'', Maken said there are many different voices in the party along with ''pressures'' of the opposition alliance. ''I would like to reiterate that it was a big mistake on the part of the Congress party in 2014 to support AAP's 40-day government. It was just because of that one small support that AAP managed to stay in Delhi. After that in the Lok Sabha elections also, we could have avoided (aligning with AAP). ''But, there are pressures, counter-pressure from other alliance partners on the basis of which we have to take certain decisions.... You have to make certain decisions collectively with other alliance partners. ''And, when the other alliance partners are so hell-bent upon that we need this party with us in the alliance, then the Congress party can't do much because it is a collective decision-making process when it comes to the INDIA alliance thinking,'' he noted. ''When I say that the mask has come off, it means that the mask has come off for the other INDIA alliance partners who can now clearly see that... They should also see that this mask has come off,'' Maken said, asserting that the Congress has never had an alliance in any state elections with AAP and ''I don't think it is going to happen''. Maken claimed that Sushil Gupta told him before leaving the Congress that his ''setting with AAP had been done and he would be given a Rajya Sabha seat''. His remarks came on a day Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially accepted the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP, reducing the strength of Arvind Kejriwal's party in the Upper House to three. The BJP's tally has now risen to 113. Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal and Rajinder Gupta are the seven MPs who are now BJP members. Maken alleged that AAP and Arvind Kejriwal conspired to defame and tarnish the image of good administrators like former prime minister Manmohan Singh and ex-chief minister Sheila Dikshit. When the BJP was unable to do anything against them, it brought forward a proxy in the form of AAP, the Congress leader alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)