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Hours after Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday, 14 September, alleged that the the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) approached their MLAs to topple the Punjab government, the Punjab Police filed a First Information Report (FIR) on the basis of the complaint by MLAs.
"Following a complaint filed by some MLAs of the state, the Punjab Police registered a first information report under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 171-B and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," an official spokesperson of the state police said.
"Our 10 MLAs have been approached in Punjab by the BJP; they are buying MLAs and breaking governments," Kejriwal said, as per NDTV.
This comes on the same day eight Congress MLAs crossed over to the BJP in Goa.
Reacting to the developments, Kejriwal slammed the BJP's alleged 'Operation Lotus,' but said that the Congress was to blame as well.
Punjab minister Harpal Cheema said that the AAP MLAs who had been allegedly approached by the saffron party include Dinesh Chadha, Raman Arora, Budh Ram, Kulwant Pandori, Narinder Kaur Bharaj, Rajnish Dahiya, Rupinder Singh Happy, Sheetal Angural, Manjit Singh Bilaspur, Labh Singh Ugoke, and Baljinder Kaur.
Cheema also said that a police complaint will be filed with regard to the matter and "proof of phone calls" submitted to the state police chief.
"The BJP is offering Rs 25 crore per MLA to switch sides. Operation Lotus may have succeeded in Karnataka, but the Delhi MLAs stayed firm and failed the BJP operation," the minister said.
The BJP, however, ridiculed the allegations, and said that the Punjab government was leading to a split due to Kejriwal's "interference."
The AAP had earlier alleged that several of its MLAs in Delhi had been contacted and offered crores by the BJP to "break" the party. This came in the backdrop of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the state's excise policy.
Kejriwal had also said that the BJP offered AAP MLAs Rs 20 crore each in return for crossing over, and even more if they could bring other MLAs along.
(With inputs from PTI and NDTV.)
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