Durgesh Pathak, who is currently an MLA from Rajinder Nagar, has been associated with the AAP since its formation at Delhi’s Ramlila ground in 2012. He won the Rajinder Nagar bypoll three months ago. (File)A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Durgesh Pathak sharpened his attack against Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) alleged attempt to buy AAP MLA’s under its ‘operation lotus’, at the party’s first meeting of elected representatives from across the country, he was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning on Monday.
AAP leaders said that the questioning was in relation to the now-scraped Delhi Excise Policy. Pathak is also AAP’s MCD and Himachal Pradesh in-charge.
On Sunday, referring to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s statement that AAP leaders should be ready to go to jail in the coming months till elections in Gujarat are over, Pathak said, “The CM (Arvind Kejriwal) has asked us for four months and I think that we are ready (to go to jail) for even a year.”
Pathak has been associated with AAP since its inception and protest days against corruption in Ram Lila Maidan in 2012. He is originally from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district and first came to Delhi in 2009 for civil services exam coaching. He was part of India Against Corruption and then joined AAP when it was formed in 2012.
Pathak on Sunday said that BJP had been trying to “buy” AAP MLAs since 2013-14.
“AAP’s relationship with ‘Operation Lotus’ goes back a long way. It first started in 2013 when we won 28 seats and BJP won 32 seats and it required 36 seats to form the government. For nearly one year, BJP postponed and did not conduct the elections in Delhi. I still remember, how we used to wake up in the morning and monitored the MLAs and AAP leaders. This did not happen for just a day or two, AAP struggled for 365 days and fought BJP,” he said.
He accused of BJP of being an expert in only two fields — luring and threatening. “The second attempt of BJP’s Operation lotus started in Punjab… in 2018-19, when the Party decided to make Harpal Singh Cheema the Leader of Opposition (LOP)… Aisa bhuchaal macha ki puri ki puri BJP, Congress, Akali Dal lag gayi ki AAP ko Punjab mai khatam Karen main. We had about 18-19 seats that time and despite the opposition’s efforts to topple AAP in Punjab, we stood together and defeated BJP and its Operations Lotus.”
He also said that recent attempts had taken place in Delhi to buy MLAs.
“Recently, in Delhi, BJP tried to buy our MLAs Somnath Bharti, Sanjeev Jha and others, and offered Rs 20-20 crore. They were also threatened that if they don’t accept they would be put behind bars. They failed as all our leaders are standing firm against BJP and its plan. I got to know that recently they also tried to buy our MLAs in Punjab. They aim to buy at least 40-45 MLAs in Punjab.”
He said, “BJP ka ek hi daav hai, ya to aap dar jaao ya aap laalach mai aa jao.”
The Rajinder Nagar MLA is one of the rising young leaders of AAP among others like Raghav Chaddha, Saurabh Bharadwaj and is also given the charge of MCD elections in Delhi.