The Aam Aadmi Party’s AAP Lok Sabha MP from Punjab’s Anandpur Sahib, Malvinder Singh Kang, on Monday slammed seven Rajya Sabha MPs of the party who have defected to the BJP, and took an indirect dig at the party’s former deputy leader in the Upper House, Ashok Kumar Mittal.
Kang accused all seven MPs of “betraying” AAP, the party that “gave them a lot of respect”.
“They joined the political party which always tries to divide society,” he alleged while speaking to reporters.
Kang said the seven MPs — six of whom were elected from Punjab by MLAs — joined the BJP for their “personal interests”.
He also took a dig at Jalandhar’s Lovely Professional University owner Ashok Kumar Mittal without naming him, saying “some of them were scared of central agencies”.
“We feel that they had personal interests. Of them, some were scared of central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate. They switched sides to save their businesses,” the AAP leader said.
ED raid on LPU
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted extensive raids at Lovely Professional University (LPU) and multiple properties linked to its founder-chancellor and former AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Ashok Kumar Mittal, who was still with the party at the time, and had in fact been made AAP’s deputy RS leader by replacing a rebellious Raghav Chadha.
The ED raids started on April 15. According to reports, the searches were part of an investigation into suspected violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The probe reportedly focused on overseas financial transactions and potential money-laundering activities involving the Lovely Group.
The raids occurred shortly after Mittal was appointed the AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, replacing Raghav Chadha.
The operation lasted approximately three days, with some searches concluding by April 17.
Barely 10 days after the raids, Mittal joined the BJP, along with Chadha and five other of the party’s Rajya Sabha members.
These MPs include Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney, all from Punjab, and Swati Maliwal, who was elected from Delhi. The defectors alleged that the party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan on Monday officially accepted the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP, reducing the strength of Arvind Kejriwal’s party in the Upper House to three. The party has three Lok Sabha MPs.
On Raghav Chadha
On Sunday, Malvinder Kang had targeted Raghav Chadha, asserting that he held immense power, something which eventually proved to be a setback for the party. “I feel the party made a mistake by giving him so much power…We should have kept a check on Raghav Chadha,” Kang said in an interview with the Indian Express, further adding that he even saw Chadha interfering in CM Bhagwant Mann’s decisions. The party has consistently denied any such interference.
Malvinder Kang backs Bhagwant Mann
Malvinder Kang said that the AAP government in Punjab remains steady.
“The MLAs in Punjab firmly stand with Bhagwant Mann and the AAP would continue to serve people of the state,” Kang said in a reply to another question.
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