2 min readNew DelhiMar 12, 2015 03:38 AM IST
First published on: Mar 12, 2015 at 03:38 AM IST
Hours after the audio clip involving a purported conversation between Arvind Kejriwal and former AAP MLA Rajesh Garg surfaced on Wednesday, a former Congress MLA told The Indian Express that he has an audio and video recording of a meeting with AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh.
Mohammad Asif said there were two meetings between him and the senior AAP leaders and that he was offered a cabinet berth in the new government in exchange for breaking the Congress.
“The meetings took place in September. In the first meeting, I was asked by Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia to try and bring about an alliance between AAP and Congress. I took the information back to the party leadership. But Arvinder Singh Lovely and Haroon Yusuf said Sonia Gandhi had said that there was no chance of an alliance and they wouldn’t go against the party high command. They asked me also to drop the issue,” Asif said.
The former Okhla MLA said there was another meeting, within a week, with the two AAP leaders. “After I told them that the Congress leadership had said no their offer, they asked me to try and get six MLAs. They said the Muslim leaders in Congress can’t join the BJP, so might as well join AAP. In exchange, they promised to give me a cabinet berth and that all six MLAs will be accomodated,” he said.
Asif said he has an audio and video recording of the second meeting where he is being offered a cabinet berth in exchange for breaking up the party. He said he did not release the recording at an earlier stage because “the meetings had taken place at the residence of a senior journalist in Noida who was acting as a go-between and I didn’t want to put him in any trouble”.
AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai said, “Why did Asif Mohammad not reveal this before? That itself raises questions. It is a falsehood anything was offered either financially or any other way. If he has a tape, let him reveal it to the public.”
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