AAP: BJP leader offered money and Cabinet berth to join party

New Delhi/Chandigarh: Punjab Aam Aadmi Party president Bhagwant Mann on Sunday claimed a senior BJP leader "offered him money" and a place in the Union Cabinet to join the saffron party ahead of the state assembly polls next year.

Addressing the media, the Sangrur MP also claimed that the BJP was calling up AAP MLAs to woo them.

The two-time MP asserted that he could not be bought with money or anything else as he accused the BJP of doing "politics of manipulations".

There was no immediate reaction from the BJP on the allegations.

Without naming anyone, Mann claimed that the senior BJP leader contacted him four days ago and asked him, "Mann sahab, what would you take to join the BJP?"

He alleged that he was also asked "whether you need money".

The AAP leader further claimed he was told that if he joined the BJP, he would be made a Union cabinet minister with the portfolio of his choice.

Mann said that he was told that since he was a lone MP of the AAP, the anti-defection law cannot apply, he said.

"I told him (BJP leader) that I am on a mission and not on commission," said Mann.

He said he told the BJP leader that there might be others "whom you could buy". Mann said he could not be bought with money or anything else.

When asked to name the BJP leader, he said he would disclose it when the time comes.

He asked the BJP to remove this misunderstanding that he could be bought.

The AAP leader claimed the BJP has no base in Punjab.

He said that the BJP leaders were not being allowed to enter villages and cities for holding any meetings or rallies over farm laws that were repealed by the government last week.

Mann alleged that the BJP knew the politics of "horse trading".

"They did this in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Meghalaya and now they think this can be done in Punjab too," he said.

He further said that they were trying to woo him with such offers as they knew no central agencies like Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and CBI could find anything against him.

In Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party's co-incharge for Punjab Raghav Chadha alleged that the BJP has started luring his party workers to join their party at any cost.

The AAP MLA alleged that Home Minister Amit Shah's office has been calling AAP MPs, MLAs, and other workers in Punjab, making extravagant offers in a bid to lure them into his party and is ready to offer "any amount of money that they want if they leave AAP and join BJP", he said.

AAP leaders like Bhagwant Mann have received calls with lavish offers from Shah's office. Chadha warned that all phone calls from BJP offices to AAP members will be recorded and made public, after which BJP's real face will be exposed for everyone to see.

"How much money does the BJP possess to be making such extravagant proposals? Because even if you add all your money and property you have to offer and dangle in front of even a common AAP volunteer, you will not be able to buy them. Not a single of even the most ordinary workers of the Aam Aadmi Party will give in to your excessive offers, let alone our MLAs or MPs," the AAP leader said.