Setback for AAP ahead of Delhi Assembly polls as Kailash Gahlot quits: ‘Party no longer fighting for people’s rights’

Gahlot, a two-time MLA from Najafgarh, announced his resignation on X (formerly Twitter). In a letter addressed to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Gahlot said that the party has moved from fighting for people’s rights to fighting for its own political agenda.

The letter addressed to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

He started off by thanking Kejriwal for the opportunity to serve the people of the Capital. “Let me start with sincerely thanking you for having given me the honour of serving and and representing the people of Delhi as an MLA and a Minister. However, at the same time I also want to share with you that today the Aam Aadmi Party faces grave challenges.”

Listing out the challenges, Gahlot wrote: “Political ambitions have overtaken our commitment towards people, leaving many promises unfulfilled. Take for example the YAMUNA, which we had promised to transform into a clean river, but never got around to doing it. Now the Yamuna River is perhaps even more polluted than ever before.”

Speaking about the renovation of the CM’s house in Civil Lines, he wrote: “Apart from this, now there are many embarrassing and awkward controversies like the ‘Sheesh Mahal’, which are now making everyone doubt whether we still believe in being the Aam Aadmi.”

Criticising the party for fighting for its own agenda, he added: “This has severely crippled our ability to even deliver basic services to the people of Delhi. It is now obvious that real progress for Delhi cannot happen if the Delhi Government spends the majority of its time fighting with the Centre.”

Chief Minister Atishi accepted Gahlot’s resignation. Sources in AAP, meanwhile, said that Gahlot was under pressure from BJP because of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department inquiries against him.

Reacting to the move, AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said: “Since the past few months, all of us knew that Gahlotji was facing income tax raids. He was left with no option but to join the BJP. This is what the BJP does — they used the ED and CBI to win elections.”

In March, he was summoned by the ED in the Delhi excise policy case. However, this was before all AAP leaders and the accused in the case were granted bail. In 2018, several locations linked to Gahlot and his family members were raided by the Income Tax Department, alleging tax evasion worth several crores.

Born in Mitraon village of Najafgarh, Gahlot joined AAP and contested the polls from Najafgarh constituency, winning by a margin of 55,598 votes. A native of the village, Gahlot comes from a farming background and during his legal career, he has represented several cases related to farmers’ rights. He has also worked as a lawyer before the Supreme Court and High Court for more than a decade.

Besides this, he served as a minister in both Kejriwal and Atishi’s Cabinet, holding important portfolios like transport, revenue, administrative reforms, information and technology, law, justice and legislative affairs, and women and child development (WCD). Gahlot had also presented Delhi’s Budget in 2023 when he was handed the finance portfolio after Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was arrested.

Sources, however, said that Gahlot was also unhappy after the last re-shuffling of portfolios after Kejriwal resigned as the chief minister and Atishi took charge.

Reshuffling had started when Sisodia went to jail and six portfolios fell vacant — finance, planning, public works department, power, home, urban development, irrigation and flood control, water.

A re-shuffle of portfolios took place then when major ones went to Atishi. However, after Atishi took charge, Gahlot was only left with transport, home and WCD.

Gahlot helmed the implementation of several key projects in the National Capital — the ‘Pink Pass scheme’, ‘Mukhyamantri Tirath Yatra Yojna’, ‘Electric Vehicle Policy’, ‘Bus Marshals’, introduction of hi-tech security system in buses for women safety, and introduction of women bus drivers, among others.

“I had started my political journey with the commitment to serve the people of Delhi and I want to continue doing that. Which is why, I find myself left with no option but to step away from AAP and hence I resign from the primary membership of the Aam Aadmi Party,” he said in the letter on Sunday.