AAP, BJP scotch rumours over MLAs’ Goa trip

Senior BJP leaders also dismissed talk of the AAP MLAs meeting a BJP leader and said they were unnecessarily being dragged into “differences within the AAP”.

On Sunday, it had emerged that three AAP MLAs — Ashok Kumar of Ambedkar Nagar, Dharmendra Koli of Seemapuri and Prakash Jarwal of Deoli — had flown to Goa. Immediately, there was speculation that they had gone to meet a BJP leader there. Asked to return by the AAP leadership, the MLAs flew back to Delhi on Sunday night itself.

At one point, the party could not get in touch with any of the three. “We tried to contact them, but all phones were switched off. However, by 5 pm we spoke to one of them and told him to return immediately,” an AAP leader had said on Sunday.

On Monday, Ashok Kumar said, “I did not know that an MLA cannot even take a trip at personal cost. We are very much with the AAP and want to tell anyone spreading the rumours that there is no chance of us joining the BJP. When we received the call from Delhi after landing in Goa, we did not even step out of the airport. We took the next flight back and met leaders to put the speculation at rest.”

Vijender Gupta, former Delhi BJP president, said, “Anyone who is saying that they were going to meet a BJP leader should name him.

There is no such thing. Further, the indiscipline of the AAP MLAs must be made clear. Clearly, they cannot be called the Aam Aadmi Party because they seem to have enough money to go to Goa and return in an hour. If they went for an excursion, why did their party call them back at such short notice? The BJP is only being dragged into the AAP’s internal infighting.”

Jarwal, however, hit back at Gupta. “I did not know the aam aadmi did not have the right to fly to a destination. We returned because we did not want to fuel the rumours.”