Chandigarh: CM Bhagwant Mann on Monday called for a special session of the state assembly to prove the party's majority in the Punjab state Assembly. The session will be held on September 22 and will seek a trust vote from the members of the Legislative Assembly. The statement has come days after the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party accused the center-ruling BJP of attempting to topple the Punjab government.
In a video released earlier, the CM had claimed that the BJP has approached some of the AAP MLAs offering them Rs 25 crores each to switch their loyalties and join the BJP. "You must have heard how they tried to contact our MLAs and tried to offer money and other allurements in an attempt to topple the government which was elected with a huge mandate," Mann, who is currently in Germany, had said in the video message in Punjabi.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema had also alleged that some BJP leaders had approached around 10 MLAs with money and ministerial positions under 'Operation Lotus'. "We are summoning a special session of Punjab Assembly on September 22 in which we will bring a trust vote," he said.
With 92 MLAs, the AAP has an overwhelming majority in the 117-member Punjab Assembly, while Congress has 18, SAD three, BJP two, and BSP has one. The assembly also has an Independent member. The senior AAP leader claimed that around 7 to 10 AAP MLAs have been approached with offers of money and ministerial positions.
Further showing confidence that the people of Punjab are with AAP, CM Bhagwant Mann said that people had put immense faith in his party during the 2022 assembly polls, highlighting that they rejected the opposition parties that had a huge sum of money to induce people. Friends' trust is a priceless thing, he said, adding we will maintain that trust. AAP's MLAs stand like a rock with the state and Punjabis, said Mann.
We are calling a special session of the Vidhan Sabha on September 22, to show this confidence in a legal manner. During the session, we will show how committed the elected MLAs are to realizing the dream of turning Punjab into a vibrant state, said Mann.
A delegation led by the state unit chief Ashwani Sharma of the Punjab BJP had last week demanded a probe into AAP's accusations about the BJP corrupting its MLAs. The delegation had reached out to the Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit for the same.
Earlier on September 1, the Delhi Assembly had also passed a similar confidence motion tabled by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. After winning the confidence motion, Kejriwal had said he brought it only to prove to the country that the BJP cannot buy his MLAs and the saffron party's 'Operation Lotus' had "failed" in Delhi.
