PANAJI
The recent defection of eight Congress MLAs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) featured prominently in discussion as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a scathing attack on the ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its "Operation Lotus" mission to wean over MLAs with allurement from other parties and dislodge State governments.
Kejriwal accused the BJP of spending between Rs 7,000-8,000 crore in 'buying' out as many as 285 MLAs across the country and warned that the Centre will launch the second phase of its 'Operation Lotus'.
He was speaking at AAP's national convention of MLAs, MPs and elected members of panchayats and municipalities from across the nation at a national convention held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi.
The convention also deliberated threadbare on the BJP's 'Operation Kamal' attended by the party's MLAs and MPs among others from across the country.
"BJP-led central government...spent Rs 7,000-8,000 crore on poaching of MLAs," Kejriwal said, adding that after the failure of phase-I, it has launched phase-II of 'Operation Lotus' in Delhi and Punjab.
Citing the arrest of Delhi AAP MLA, Amanatullah Khan, the Delhi Chief Minister said a lot of AAP MLAs have started getting calls with offers of money and threats that they will face arrest if they do not breakaway from the party.
Meanwhile, the recent defection of eight Goa MLAs to the saffron party from the Congress featured prominently in the discussions at the convention held in Delhi on Sunday.
Both the AAP MLAs from Goa -- Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva -- besides some party members elected as panchas recently participated in the discussion.
Viegas said: "The BJP succeeded with their 'operation lotus' luring eight of the eleven Congress MLAs but cannot even approach us two AAP MLAs in Goa."
"Both of us are 'aam aadmis' who are committed to the leadership and vision of Arvind Kejriwal for quality education and healthcare," he added.
