A day after Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the single largest party by winning 14 of 35 wards in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) polls, AAP’s Punjab affairs co-in-charge Raghav Chadha alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which BJP second by winning 12 wards, is trying to buy AAP’s winning candidates.

Addressing a Press conference, Chadha said AAP has instructed its councillors to put their mobile phones on the recording mode and secretive CCTV cameras were being installed outside their homes to expose the BJP’s vile politics. He said that if BJP took any such action now, it would expose the ‘dirty’ politics of BJP by making the recordings of mobile phones and CCTV cameras public.

Chadha alleged this act of ‘horse trading’ was being carried out under the leadership of senior leaders of BJP including Punjab BJP in-charge Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. He said late last night three senior councillors of their party were contacted by senior leaders of BJP and they were offered money. The real face of BJP has come to the fore after their severe defeat in the corporation elections, Chadha said.

The AAP leader, who is a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Delhi, said the BJP had tried to buy two of their councillors by paying Rs 50 lakh each and one councillor by paying Rs 75 lakh. Chadha said the AAP councillors are not going to be tempted in any way. He said that AAP councillors were not made of the soil that would fall into such greed of BJP or any other ploy. He said the people of the city have given their full support to Arvind Kejriwal’s model of development and honest governance and have elected a record 14 AAP candidates.

Chadha said BJP has tried to buy councillors by launching ‘Operation Kamal’ in Chandigarh just like they tried to do in Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. He said the BJP can lure Congress people into their fold, but they cannot tempt AAP candidates. He said that AAP would not tolerate this dirty politics of BJP and would take legal action if required.

Chadha said like Chandigarh, the people of Punjab are also fed up with the anti-people policies of the traditional parties and the corrupt regime. Punjab had been ruled by Congress for 26 years and SAD-BJP for 24 years. He said now people of Punjab are looking at AAP as their alternative.