Reposing faith in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Wednesday, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) will fail in its ploy to buy his party MLAs as they will remain loyal to their land and Punjab.

In a video message, Chief Minister Mann said the BJP is on a high of power. “If these people (BJP) do not get votes, they resort to buying of MLAs,” he said, adding that India is called the biggest democracy in the world but democracy is at the receiving end in the country.

“Governments in many states were brought down by luring the MLAs. In the past few days, ‘Operation Lotus’ was tried in Delhi as well but they could not buy a single AAP MLA. As they have developed a habit of it, the BJP has now turned to Punjab and tried to contact six to seven of our MLAs to join the BJP and promised a meeting with the party high command after promising money,” said Mann.

Stating that Punjabis are loyal to their soil, he said: “When the votes were cast, other parties had money and many other things but the people were not lured by it and they cast their vote for the Aam Aadmi Party and elected 92 MLAs (AAP) to the Assembly. So don’t try this and be in the wrong impression that you can buy Punjab MLAs. Afterall, only one who is for sale in the market gets sold. So, the MLA who is not for sale in the market, how can you set a price for him?  So, the habit that you have developed to buy the MLAs when you get votes will fail in Punjab.”

Meanwhile, a battery of AAP leaders trained their guns on the BJP, accusing the saffron party of trying to poach its MLAs and attempting to bring down the AAP government in Punjab.

Cabinet Minister Aman Arora said under ‘Operation Lotus’ many leaders and agents of the BJP from Delhi and Punjab have approached 10 AAP MLAs and offered Rs 25 crore to each of them to quit AAP and join the BJP but their agenda will be foiled by the loyal workers of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann.

Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that by indulging in the politics of horse-trading, the BJP is destroying the Constitution of the country and insulting the legacy of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

“The BJP may have achieved its agenda of toppling the government in many states of the country but the AAP has prevented its ‘Operation Lotus’ in Delhi and Punjab as well,” said AAP’s chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang.