NEW DELHI: Rebel Aam Aadmi Party MLA Alka Lamba on Saturday claimed that around a dozen AAP MLAs were in touch with her to join the Congress. It is time that senior AAP leaders manage their ship before they sink, she said.
Lamba said this (the AAP leaders in touch with her) should be seen as a warning to the seniors that they should not take their MLAs for granted.
“A good number of MLAs are in touch with me. They have spoken to me and are willing to leave the AAP. Senior leadership should take note that it is time you stop treating MLAs for granted,” the Chandni Chowk MLA told this newspaper.
Earlier, Congress sources claimed that around nine AAP MLAs who were associated with the Congress four years ago might rejoin the party. On Saturday, Lamba said “the number is almost double now”.
But, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj hinted at ‘greed’ behind such a move. “To join the Congress, Alka Lamba needs to resign from the AAP. That would mean losing her MLA ‘chair’, which lured some to AAP. The ‘chair’ which many could not get even after serving the Congress for more than 20 years. It requires courage to leave that ‘MLA Chair’,” he tweeted.
Lamba blasted her AAP colleague for the statement. “I have been in politics for 25 years. Saurabh has been for five years. If I was greedy for MLA chair and its perks, then I would have resigned in 2015. I got votes from the people... they will decide my future and I will work for my people.” She added that the AAP should learn from the Congress after the survey it conducted regarding an alliance.
“Listening and communicating from all the workers, and taking everyone together is lost on the AAP.”
She asked why there was no woman minister in the Delhi Cabinet.
On her role if an invitation from Congress was extended to her, she said: “I am ready for whatever responsibility the Congress gives me. If they want me to fight from the LS Chandni Chowk constituency, I have no issue.”
“No AAP member can say that in the last four-and-half year I ever said anything against the party line. But now the limit has crossed. Many MLAs have welcomed my stand against the leadership openly.”
Recently, senior Congress leader PC Chako said Lamba is always welcome in the party. Lamba has served on various posts in NSUI and Youth Congress in Delhi before joining AAP.
Last December, Lamba claimed she was asked to quit by AAP because of her dissent against the proposal of taking back Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Ratna.