New Delhi, March 11 (IANS): A former AAP legislator on Wednesday released an audio tape in which party chief Arvind Kejriwal was purportedly heard engineering defection in the Congress to form a government in 2014 in Delhi during president's rule. The AAP dismissed the audio, saying it was an attempt to defame the party.

In the tape, whose authenticity could not ascertained, Kejriwal is allegedly heard telling former legislator Rajesh Garg to split the Congress as it was not ready to again support the AAP to form the government in Delhi.

Garg told reporters that the conversation between him and Kejriwal took place sometime in July-August, 2014. Kejriwal had resigned on February 14, 2014 after 49 days in power over the failure to pass an anti-graft bill in the Delhi assembly.

The AAP chief was also reportedly heard telling Garg that Manish Sisodia, now Delhi's deputy chief minister, was in touch with the Congress on the issue of forming the government.

AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon told reporters that such tapes are not new and were also released earlier to defame the party.