The appointment of AAP councillor Damanpreet Singh as the Leader of Opposition has sparked off rebellion within the city party unit, with eight of the 14 councillors alleging favouritism as it was done without any unanimous decision or election. The rebel councillors have now written to Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, city AAP president Prem Garg and other senior leaders of the party. The AAP has 14 councillors in the General House and they are to have a Leader of Opposition. The mayor is from the BJP that also has 14 councillors in the General House while the Congress has six councillors and the SAD has one. For the last one year, AAP's councillor Yogesh Dhingra was the Leader of Opposition. Sources said that while some councillors were preparing to offer their names for the post of Leader of Opposition, they were shocked when they saw councillor Damanpreet Singh posting a message in their WhatsApp group and at all other platforms on Tuesday night thanking the senior leadership for appointing him as the LoP. Usually, the LoP is made for the entire five-year term but in the AAP, sources said that Dhingra was told that LoP would be selected every year for five years. Many were preparing to volunteer their name for the LoP. However, they were surprised when they saw Damanpreet announcing he has been elected. Following Damanpreet's message, eight councillors shot off a letter to the supremo as well the city AAP president. The letter, accessed by The Indian Express, stated, "We 14 municipal councillors elected the LoP with utmost dedication and sincerity having full faith in the party and having faith in the ideology of the party. We are always committed to working with the party by maintaing discipline of the party. But we came to know that without consent of the undersigned fourteen municipal councillors, the election of Leader of Opposition has been done, which is not in the interest of the party and is an injustice with us." It was further specified in the letter, "It is also intimated that during the elections of Mayor, we the undersigned councillors performed jointly. But, the action of election of LoP in Chandigarh at your own level will create a groupism in the party of Chandigarh unit, which (is) totally against the interests of the party. The General House of the M.C. Chandigarh is required to be run by the 14 councillors as such we are of the view the LoP may also be elected with consent of all the 14 number of Municipal Councillors." The letter added, "We hope that you will hear our hue and cry and consider the same in the interest of the party and also provide a valid role and place in the functionality of the party." A copy of the letter has been sent to Kulwant Singh, MLA Mohali (Assistant Prabhari Chandigarh), S Jarnail Singh, MLA Tilak Nagar, Delhi, (Punjab Prabhari) and Chief Minister, Punjab, Bhagwant Mann.
