NEW DELHI: The BJP has resorted to bring "tainted" leaders into its fold fearing the AAP's expansion in Himachal Pradesh, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party said on Saturday, after three of its members, including its state chief, defected.
AAP Himachal Pradesh president Anup Kesari, general secretary (organisation) Satish Thakur and Una district chief Iqbal Singh joined the BJP in the presence of its president JP Nadda, and Union Minister and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur.
However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sought to downplay the defections from its unit in the hill state, where assembly polls are due at the end of this year, saying it was anyways going to sack them.
Without naming anyone, senior AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet that the party was set to sack one of these three leaders following an allegation of his indecent behaviour with women.
"It's the BJP top leadership's great fear of Kejriwal ji. BJP president Nadda and new chief ministerial face Anurag Thakur rushed to HP (Himachal Pradesh) and inducted an AAP official (into their party) at 12 o'clock in the night. The AAP was going to remove him today on the allegation of his dirty acts against women," Sisodia in a tweet in Hindi.
Replying to Sisodia's tweet, Kejriwal, who is the chief minister of Delhi, said the BJP is not afraid of him but of the people of the state, and asserted that the defection of "tainted" functionaries of his party would not affect the AAP's poll prospects in the hill state.
"These people are afraid of the public, not me. BJP people, if you had worked honestly for the public, there would not have been this much fear, need to change the CM and fall at the feet of tainted leaders of other parties," he tweeted in Hindi.
In his tweet, Kejriwal asserted, "People have faith in the AAP. The AAP will provide a staunch honest and patriotic government to HP."
The BJP has 43 MLAs, including Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, in the 68-member state assembly, while the Congress has 22 members, CPI (M) one and two are Independents.