Operation Lotus in Punjab: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Thursday, demanded a probe by a retired judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court into the allegation made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) regarding money being offered to AAP legislators by the saffron party in order to make them join the BJP.

A delegation of Punjab BJP, led by the state president Ashwani Sharma, met the Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit and demanded a high-level inquiry into the matter.

“Since the Aam Aadmi Party has failed to keep its promises made at the time of Punjab elections, the leaders are now trying to distract the public attention by giving such statements against BJP that we are trying to buy their MLAs. These allegations are baseless and there is no truth in these statements,” Sharma said.

He said a complaint has also been filed with the Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab by AAP’s Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), but the BJP has no faith in such an investigation done by the state government officers.

“We do not trust Punjab governments and officers working on the directions of AAP leaders. Therefore, we demand an independent inquiry in this case. A retired HC judge can conduct an inquiry so that these lies could be exposed,” the BJP leader said.

Sharma said an audio clip of Cabinet minister Fauja Singh Sarari has gone viral in which he is openly talking about corrupt practices but the AAP government did not act against him till date. “Therefore it is requested to recommend CBI inquiry in this case as well,” he said.

The BJP state president said the AAP had made many promises to the voters of Punjab just to win the elections and now when people are asking about those promises they have no answers. He said their own cabinet ministers are now getting exposed for their corrupt practices but instead of taking action against them they are leveling allegations on BJP.

Sharma said actually it is not operation Lotus rather it is operation Mann hatao operation started by Kejriwal as Bhagwant Mann was never his choice for CM of Punjab.

“Kejriwal wanted to be the CM. When he could not become CM, he sent Raghav Chadha here and through him, Kejriwal is fulfilling his desire to rule Punjab,” he said.