New Delhi: Former MLA Indranil Rajguru, who quit the Aam Aadmi Party and joined the Congress on Friday, alleged that the list of Gujarat election candidates for the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is decided by Kamalam (Gujarat BJP Headquarters).
"After I returned to Congress, AAP alleged I wanted to be CM face and demanded tickets for 15 people. The CM face was pre-decided there 6 months ago. It wasn't according to what people chose, it was pre-decided," Indranil Rajguru said on Saturday.
This remark contradicts AAP's claim that Isudan Gadhvi was chosen as the party's chief ministerial candidate after he got as many as 73 per cent votes in a poll conducted by the AAP.
"I was asking 15 tickets not for myself but for strong AAP candidates, they chose nominations which helped BJP instead... I went there to defeat the BJP not the Congress," he said in the video posted by news agency ANI.
"I was told not to insist, the list comes from Kamalam (Gujarat BJP HQ) and they have to go with it..." the former AAP leader alleges.
"I also saw a lot of money coming and asked where is it from. Both CMs (Kejriwal and Mann) had come to Rajkot and it was then that I asked about it, they signaled (shows an airborne aircraft) and said that's how. It's a party that befools people. So, I returned to Congress," he further claimed, as quoted by ANI.
AAP Is BJP B-Team: Indranil Rajguru
Rajguru had joined the AAP after quitting the Congress in April this year. He returned to the grand old party on Friday saying that Congress was the best option for defeating the BJP in Gujarat.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Rajguru said he had joined the AAP to defeat the BJP but found that it was acting as the "B-team of the BJP", news agency PTI reported.
He joined the Congress in the presence of AICC Gujarat incharge Raghu Sharma, Gujarat Congress chief Jagdish Thakor, Congress legislature party leader Sukhram Rathava and other senior leaders.
Rajguru had won as Congress MLA from Rajkot-East seat in 2012. In 2017, he decided to quit his safe seat to fight the Assembly polls against the then Chief Minister Vijay Rupani from Rajkot-West seat. But he eventually lost to Rupani.
The Assembly elections in Gujarat will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, and counting of votes will take place on December 8.
(With Agency Inputs)