New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP and National Treasurer of the Congress, Ajay Maken, on Monday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of being a party of billionaires, calling the leaders of the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit “anti-national”.
Addressing media persons at AICC Headquarters, Maken said that the AAP is not only the B-Team of the BJP, but the party’s claim of being an outfit of people from humble backgrounds is also a lie, as most of its Rajya Sabha MPs are billionaires or “moneybags”.
“The leaders of AAP are traitors, and now AAP should change its name to the Party of Billionaires,” he said.
Ahead of the Delhi Rajya Sabha election in November 2017, our leader Sushil Gupta told me that he wanted to resign, said Maken.
The Congress narrated: Gupta claimed that AAP is making me a Rajya Sabha member. My entire matter has been settled, and all the arrangements are done. On this, I said — There are already several candidates for Rajya Sabha seats there, how will they make you one?
“But Sushil Gupta didn’t agree. He joined AAP, and in the end, AAP sent Sushil Gupta to the Rajya Sabha,” said Maken.
“The AAP is a party that did not send Prashant Bhushan or Yogendra Yadav or Kumar Vishwas to Rajya Sabha but sent wealthy people to the Upper House,” he said, citing Gupta’s example.
“Therefore, what I want to say is that AAP is such a party which, instead of sending qualified people to the Rajya Sabha, has sent moneybags to Parliament on the basis of wealth, and this is the main reason behind the recent episode involving the exit of Punjab’s MPs who have joined the BJP,” he said.
“When I was coming for the press conference today, I pulled out the affidavits of AAP’s 7 MPs, who have now gone to the BJP,” he said.
When I looked at their affidavits, I found out that the average net worth per Rajya Sabha MP of AAP is Rs 818,50,35,420, he said.
The question is — how can the Aam Aadmi Party claim to be a party of the common man? In reality, it is the party of billionaires, said Maken.
He said he also checked the backgrounds of all the Rajya Sabha members, and I concluded that none of them had any connection with the AAP before becoming MPs.
“I could not find even a single statement of any of them in favour of the AAP before they became MPs. This indicates that they became MPs through setting, and only after they were sent to the Rajya Sabha, did they start talking in favour of the AAP,” he said.
The switch of the AAP Rajya Sabha MPs to the BJP is also condemnable for the role played by the latter, he said.
(IANS)
