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Punjab Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Monday lashed out at Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa over claims regarding 32 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs ready to jump ship, labelling him as an "empty showpiece".
Asserting that Bajwa's claims were "wrong," the minister escalated his attack and challenged Bajwa to get the support of only three Congress MLAs. "I challenge Partap Singh Bajwa to prove that even three Congress leaders stand with him. His brother himself was in the BJP. He is an empty showpiece of Congress. All that he is saying is wrong," Dhaliwal told ANI. Meanwhile, Punjab Minister Aman Arora said that Bajwa was making such claims to gain the media's attention, labelling them "baseless." "The thing is that Bajwa is totally free these days and does all this to get media attention. I want to ask him if his own brother Fateh Bajwa wasn't in touch with him when he went to BJP. This is a baseless claim. Rahul Gandhi should ask Bajwa why he recently went to Bengaluru," Arora told ANI. This comes after Bajwa, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab legislative assembly, made sensational claims, alleging that 32 AAP MLAs are in touch with him and ready to join the Congress. Bajwa likened the situation to the "Eknath Shinde episode" in Maharashtra, where Shiv Sena MLAs defected to form a new government. He further claimed that these MLAs are making 'advance bookings' just like people buy tickets for DSiljit Dosanjh's show in advance. "There will be an 'Eknath Shinde episode' in Punjab in the coming months. These MLAs are doing 'advance booking' to join the Congress, just like people buy tickets in advance for Diljit Dosanjh's show," Bajwa said while referring to the breakup of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. He stated that these MLAs are leaving AAP because they see no future with the party. He emphasised that the Congress is not trying to destabilise the government; instead, the MLAs are coming to the party voluntarily. Bajwa also made shocking claims about Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, alleging that he will soon join the BJP. He claimed Union Minister Ravneet Bittu is mediating secret meetings between Mann and BJP leaders. "Bittu is only pretending to protest outside the CM's residence, while in reality, he is arranging secret meetings between the CM and BJP leaders," Bajwa added. The Congress leader predicted the fall of the AAP government in Punjab within the next four to five months, citing similarities with the Maharashtra political developments. "The countdown of this government has begun. In the next four to five months, what happened in Maharashtra will happen in Punjab. This government will fall," Bajwa added. (ANI)
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