Day Sushil Kumar Rinku leaves AAP, 3 MLAs flag ‘Rs 20 crore offer’ from BJP

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, March 27

Two days after senior AAP leaders, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, warned their MLAs to be wary of allurements and threats from the BJP, Jalandhar MP Sushil Kumar Rinku and MLA Sheetal Angural today defected to the BJP.

On March 14, AAP had announced the candidature of Rinku from the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency along with seven others. While Rinku was earlier in the Congress and had won the 2023 Jalandhar bypoll on an AAP ticket, Angural before joining AAP was a BJP worker.

‘Calls received from int’l number’

• MLAs—Jagdeep Goldy Kamboj, Amardeep Singh Musafir and Rajinder Pal Kaur Chinna—claimed to have received calls from a Cyprus number
• The trio told mediapersons that the caller identified himself as Sewak Singh and asked them to join the BJP in lieu of Rs 20 to Rs 25 crore each

‘Op Lotus’ in 2022

• In September 2022, AAP leaders had alleged that the BJP launched “Operation Lotus” and were offering Rs 20-25 crore to MLAs to topple the AAP government
• An FIR was also registered in this case. Interestingly, it was MLA Sheetal Angural, who had alleged that he had received the call from the BJP to switch sides

Hunt for nominee

• With AAP Jalandhar LS candidate switching sides, hunt for new nominee has started
• A minister from Doaba region could be fielded by AAP, said sources

As if this was not enough, three AAP MLAs — Jagdeep Goldy Kamboj, Amardeep Singh Musafir and Rajinder Pal Kaur Chinna — claimed that they received calls from a Cyprus number and the caller offered them

Rs 20 to Rs 25 crore each to switch over to the BJP.

The trio told mediapersons that the caller identified himself as Sewak Singh and asked them to join the BJP in lieu of Rs 20 to Rs 25 crore. “As we are loyal foot soldiers of AAP, we refused to accept it,” the MLAs said.

On March 24, flanked by state working president Budh Ram and Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Singh Rouri, the CM had asked the party MLAs to be alert and ward off any allurement or threat they might receive, as he was aware of the situation.

Sources close to the CM said he was already aware of Rinku’s plan to switch sides to the BJP. Mann had even met Rinku last week and reportedly assured him of his full support.

As soon as news of Rinku’s changing sides came out, Mann called him a traitor and said people of Jalandhar won’t back him. “Apne wallon tan dareya vadde ghar janda hai, par vich samundar jake o marr janda hai. Gardan sidhi rakhan da mull taar rahein haan, besharman da taan nivin pa ke v sar janda hai,” he said.

Both Mann and Kejriwal had campaigned aggressively for Rinku, when he contested the Jalandhar bypoll last year.

AAP was keeping tabs on the movement of Rinku as he embarked on a “pilgrimage” almost a fortnight ago.

Angural had often been chided by the party leaders for his “high-handedness”, said a senior party leader. “Their going away is not an immediate threat to AAP, which has a vast majority in the Vidhan Sabha. AAP is treading with caution and working to keep its flock together,” said another senior party leader on the condition of anonymity.

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