The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs are getting calls asking them to leave the party or face consequences, party national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak claimed on March 28, ahead of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's remand hearing by a court in New Delhi.
“The BJP is resorting to “hooliganism” and this will harm the country,” he said in a post on X in Hindi. "AAP MLAs are being called. They are being told 'you will get whatever you want, and if you don't come, it will not be good for you'.
“The people of Delhi and Punjab voted for Mr. Kejriwal with high hopes. The BJP is doing this ‘goondagardi’ not with a party but with the country,” the AAP leader said.
Replying to Mr. Pathak's post on X, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor challenged him to tell the name of even one BJP leader who had called to lure any AAP MLA.
"...truth is that the AAP clan is scattering due to the stories of Arvind Kejriwal's corruption," Mr. Kapoor alleged in his post in Hindi.
AAP national convener Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 and subsequently remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) till March 28 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money-laundering case.
In his post, Mr. Pathak also said earlier attempts were made by the British and the Mughals to break the country, and history is witness that they failed. "This attempt by the BJP will also fail," he said.
There was also a flash protest by the AAP workers near the ITO metro station gate in the morning over Mr. Kejriwal's arrest. Wearing aprons with "Mai Bhi Kejriwal" written on them, the party's workers were also seen distributing pamphlets to people.