Chandigarh, December 14
The five newly elected MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Gujarat Assembly, who were in Punjab for two days, left for Delhi on Wednesday evening.
These MLAs — Bhupat Bayani, Umesh Makwana, Sudhir Vaghani, Hemant Ahir and Chaitar Vasava — were reportedly brought to the state, where AAP is in power. They were brought here to counter any attempts at poaching by the ruling party in Gujarat. There was a widespread speculation in the western state about four of these MLAs joining the BJP.
It may be noted that if four of the five elected MLAs join the BJP, they would be able to circumvent the anti-defection law. It may be mentioned that the election of these MLAs in Gujarat has given wings to AAP’s ambition of becoming a national party.
While the MLAs stayed in Chandigarh for a day, they also went to Amritsar yesterday. Highly placed sources have confirmed to The Tribune that they went to Delhi by road on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday said CM Bhagwant Mann might not be able to protect five legislators from Gujarat for a long time who had reportedly taken shelter in Punjab.
“Kejriwal’s superfluous claim that he had picked up diamonds for the Gujarat elections for his party is proving to be a big hoax now. In fact, some of these MLAs have already showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and can any time shift loyalties to the saffron party,” said Bajwa.
In fact, Kejriwal was getting the taste of own medicine now, he said. “He brought these legislators from other political parties thinking they would stay loyal to him. However, such politicians have no moral or ethical strings attached to AAP and can switch to any other party offering better options.”