2 Punjab AAP MPs in touch with BJP

In a significant political development, two of the four Aam Aadmi Party MPs are said to be in touch with the BJP leadership in connection with the Assembly elections in Punjab which are due early next year. Unconfirmed reports said that the two rebel MPs — Harinder Singh Khalsa from Fatehgarh Sahib and Dharamvir Gandhi from Patiala — have even recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “assured” him of their “support” in the coming state elections.

A highly-placed source said that the AAP leadership, which had launched a high octane campaign in Punjab, had already sidelined the two rebel MPs as they had time and again given statements not only against the party, but also against its supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who is also the chief minister of the national capital.

Since the AAP’s stakes are very high in Punjab, Mr Kejriwal himself is handling the command of the state elections. He had even surprised one and all by immediately welcoming cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu to the party fold minutes after he had tendered his resignation from the membership of the Rajya Sabha. Mr Sidhu, who recently held an hour-long meeting with the AAP supremo, is now set to join the party on August 18.

Since Mr Sidhu’s entry in the AAP is likely to improve the party’s prospects in the Punjab elections, senior party leaders are paying very little attention towards the anti-party activities of its rebel MPs. On being asked what action the AAP was contemplating against the two rebel MPs for indulging in anti-party activities, a party functionary said both the parliamentarians were free to decide upon their future political journey. “The two MPs want that our party should expel them. But we are not going to do that. If at all they join any other party, they are automatically bound to lose their membership in the Lok Sabha under the anti-defection law.” The two rebel MPs, however, could not be reached over phone for their comments. A source in BJP said that the two MPs were in touch with the saffron brigade in connection with the coming state elections. The source also said that party spokesperson Srikant Sharma was “instrumental in arranging the meetings” of the two rebel parliamentarians with the saffron leadership, including Mr Modi. But there was no official confirmation on whether the two had personally met the PM.

A local BJP leader said that the AAP was all set for a vertical split in its rank and file in Delhi’s neighbouring state where the party had won four Lok Sabha seats by securing 25 per cent vote share in the last Lok Sabha elections. Unlike Mr Khalsa and Mr Gandhi, the other two MPs — Bhagwant Mann from Sangrur and Sadhu Sigh from Faridkot — have been working tirelessly for the coming state elections. In fact, Mr Mann has been supervising the party’s campaigning in the entire state where it is going to contest all the 117 Assembly seats. A senior AAP leader said that the rebel MPs had earlier made it public that they were going to join a new political outfit to be floated by the party volunteers. “They had even attended Yogendra Yadav’s Swaraj Abhiyaan rally in Patiala. After their total failure to garner the support of AAP volunteers, they are now knocking the doors of other political outfits.”

Earlier, Mr Khalsa had termed Mr Kejriwal a dictator and promoter of coterie culture. In an interview he had said, “I don’t feel any discomfort if I have to resign from my Lok Sabha seat to join the volunteers’ outfit in the offing. The Delhi leadership is treating dedicated volunteers as doormats. Instead they are promoting the money bags who are deserting their traditional parties and joining AAP with ulterior motives.”

Mr Gandhi too had told a news agency, that if AAP continued to compromise in its founding principles of Swaraj and transparency, he would discontinue his association with it. He had said: “AAP Delhi durbar has made Punjab a colony of Delhi. They have not allowed our volunteers and local leadership to grow. If we Punjabi’s are not given a say in deciding our political fate, I will not hesitate to take a drastic step.”