As the politics in Delhi boils up with the CBI raids on Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and allegations of rampant corruption, former AAP ideologue and professional protestor Yogendra Salim Yadav has stoked a new controversy. In a tweet, Yogendra Yadav has stated that AAP senior leadership has a habit of blackmailing their own MLAs by trapping them through prank calls pretending to be BJP leaders.
Yogendra Yadav was commenting on a news report shared by Aaj Tak where former AAP leader Paramjeet Singh has made similar allegations.
In an interview to Aaj Tak, Paramjeet Singh Katyal is seen telling that he had been with Arvind Kejriwal constantly from 2011’s Anna protests till 2014. Another AAP ideologue named Manish Raizada who was earlier the foreign wing in charge of AAP and was charged with collecting donations had made a documentary named ‘Chanda Chor’ (donation fraudster) around 2018-19. The documentary featured many former AAP ideologues including Paramjeet himself, Shazia Ilmi, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Kumar Vishwas etc.
परमजीत सिंह कत्याल का एक वीडियो वायरल हो रहा है। BJP नेता बता कर अपनी ही पार्टी के नेताओं को ब्लैकमेल करने की कोशिश करते आये हैं इसकी क्या है सच्चाई? देखें आजतक संवाददाता मनजीत सहगल की ये रिपोर्ट।
— AajTak (@aajtak) August 23, 2022
पूरा वीडियो: https://t.co/bJKU23OhyQ#ReporterDiary #AAP | (@manjeet_sehgal) pic.twitter.com/mXlOYJ2s9d
A clip that has gone viral from the documentary shows Paramjeet Singh Katyal saying in 2013 that he was given 2 sim cards and was asked to call AAP leaders while pretending to be calling from the offices of senior BJP leaders like Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley. Katyal further stated Kejriwal himself had asked him to make those calls because ‘they had to save the party’ that way, by identifying people who are interested to take bribes from the BJP.
The viral clip from the documentary can be seen here. It had Katyal saying Kejriwal himself laid plans to make those fake phone calls and was later seen claiming that BJP is trying to ‘buy’ his MLAs.
“AAP calls their leaders themselves, offer money to join BJP and than Play Victim Card”, Former AAP State Secretary Paramjeet Singh Katyal exposes Arvind Kejriwal’s blatant lies & dirty politics.
— Raj Lakhani (@captrajlakhani) August 24, 2022
He is No 1 Conman in politics pic.twitter.com/gQEOCjBKf2
Katyal admitted that he was starry-eyed with Kejriwal’s ideology at that time and he did what Kejriwal had asked him to do. He added that Kejriwal had even told him that they would even arrange for the money to be shown as BJP’s bribe if it was what it takes to identify moles and blackmail AAP leaders into staying in the party.
परमजीत जी ने 7 साल पहले इस घटना के बारे में मुझे जानकारी दी थी। तब मैंने पूछताछ की और पाया कि उनकी बात पूरी तरह सच है। अरविंद केजरीवाल के आदेश पर दिसंबर 2013 में अपने ही MLA को बीजेपी के नाम पर फोन करवाए गए थे। ऐसी करतूतों के कारण हम लोगों का AAP नेतृत्व से मोहभंग हुआ था। https://t.co/T2v3vTCbcR
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) August 24, 2022
Quoting the Aaj Tak tweet, Yogendra Yadav informed that he knows Paramjeet and has been aware of the particular tactics used by senior AAP leadership to blackmail its own MLAs. Yogendra Yadav added that it was one of the many reasons for which he and many others lost their interest in Kejriwal’s politics and eventually parted ways with AAP.
Yadav added that he had made inquiries at his own level and had found that Paramjeet Singh Katyal’s claims were 100% true. In 2013, Kejriwal had ordered phone calls to be made to his own party leaders in the name of BJP to blackmail them.
Manish Sisodia claims he got an ‘offer from BJP’
It is notable here that just after the CBI raids began, Delhi’s deputy CM Manish Sisodia used the same tactic and claimed that he had got a message from BJP saying that if he leaves AAP and joins BJP, all cases against him would disappear and he will be given a Rajya Sabha nomination. Some social media users even shared screenshots stating that Sisodia may have taken a prank message seriously.
The BJP had denied Sisodia’s claim. BJP MP Gautam Gambhir had stated that Sisodia will lose the next elections and he only barely managed to win in the 2020 elections. Hence there is no chance of the BJP wooing him.
