The ruling AAP in Punjab on Wednesday filed a complaint with the state DGP, seeking a thorough probe into allegations of an attempt by the BJP to topple its government.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress dared the ruling party to get the issue probed by an independent agency under the supervision of the High Court. A senior BJP leader sought a CBI investigation into the accusations, describing the claims as the “most ridiculous joke”.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had on Wednesday claimed that the BJP had offered Rs 25 crore each to its at least 10 MLAs. The state BJP has already dubbed the allegations as “baseless” and a “bundle of lies”.

Cheema was accompanied by party MLAs Budh Ram, Kulwant Pandori, Manjit Singh Bilaspur, Dinesh Chadha, Raman Arora, Narinder Kaur Bharaj, Rajneesh Dahiya, Rupinder Singh Happy, Sheetal Angural and Labh Singh Ugoke to the DGP’s office on Wednesday.

Addressing the media here, Cheema said to “expose the unholy tactics” of the BJP, he along with AAP MLAs has filed a formal complaint along with “all proofs” to DGP Gaurav Yadav for a fair probe into this serious matter.

A complaint against BJP leaders and agents has also been for allegedly issuing a death threat to Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural for “exposing their wicked agendas”, he said.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ had earlier failed in Delhi where it could not buy AAP legislators.

“Now, they have tried to approach six-seven MLAs in Punjab,” said Mann in a video message. “The MLAs were offered money,” he alleged.

Earlier, Cheema claimed that MLA Sheetal Angural received death threats on Tuesday.

“He was told that if the evidence was presented, then he would be killed. We have proof of this also,” he claimed.

He said BJP agents and workers from Delhi and Punjab had allegedly tried to break away 35 MLAs from AAP to topple the government in Punjab.

Cheema accused the BJP of murdering democracy by toppling elected governments in various states after using central agencies like the CBI and the ED and also by offering money.

But the ‘Operation Lotus’ has completely failed in Punjab, said Cheema.

The finance minister claimed the BJP is threatened by the rising graph of AAP.

AAP is expanding in other states while the graph of BJP is declining, said Cheema.

He said the BJP will never succeed in its “wicked plans” in Punjab even if they offer Rs 2,200 crore because the loyal soldiers of AAP under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal and CM Bhagwant Mann are standing like a rock.

Meanwhile, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh demanded a CBI investigation into the accusations while describing the ruling party’s claims as the “most ridiculous joke”.

Chugh said by going to the DGP with a complaint on the basis of “fake calls”, the AAP government is getting into cheap and deceptive politics, which in the long run would prove to be a disaster for Punjab.

He said a similar tactic was adopted by AAP in Delhi, which ultimately “proved to be a hoax”.

The Punjab Congress demanded that the AAP government get the issue probed by an independent investigating agency under the supervision of the High Court.

It also asked AAP to produce evidence against the BJP on the allegations of horse trading in the state.

State Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said if the AAP is really truthful about the allegations, then why it was not registering a case in the matter. The party is trying to make an excuse as it did in Delhi by levelling similar allegations and nothing came out of those allegations there, he stated.