On Saturday, 8 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs joined the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), a day after resigning from AAP, dealing a fresh blow to the party as it gears up for the February polls.
The legislators resigned after being refused tickets to run in the next elections.
They criticized the AAP in their resignation letters for deviating from its core principles of transparency and anti-corruption governance.
Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), Rohit Kumar (Trilokpuri), Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), Bhavna Gaud (Palam), Bhupendra Singh Joon (Bijwasan), Pawan Kumar Sharma (Adarsh Nagar), and Grish Soni (Madipur) were the leaders who joined BJP.
MLAs Madan Lal and Bhavna Gaud said that they had “lost faith” in Aam Aadmi Party and the leader Arvind Kejriwal. The Dalit-dominated Trilokpuri constituency’s representative, Rohit Kumar, charged that the AAP was abusing the Dalit/Valmiki community to win votes while not fulfilling its pledges to regularize temporary workers and terminate contractual employment.
Rajesh Rishi said that the party had abandoned its commitment to accountability and transparency, while Naresh Yadav, who had previously been a fervent supporter of the AAP’s ascent to power, voiced displeasure at the repression of internal voices.
Pawan Kumar Sharma, resigning from Adarsh Nagar, said, “The party has deviated from the honest Ideology on which it was formed. I am deeply saddened by AAP’s current state.”
A “significant deviation” from the AAP’s founding principles was also mentioned by Bhupinder Singh Joon, who claimed that the party has grown more dictatorial after initially being envisioned as a people-centric movement against corruption.
The well-publicized departures occur at a critical juncture for the AAP, which is engaged in a bitter electoral conflict with the BJP. The Delhi Assembly elections will be held on February 5, with votes set to be counted on February 8.
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