‘AAP leaders considered me a bonded labourer’: Delhi’s first transgender councillor Bobi quits party

Bobi had been elected on an AAP ticket from Sultanpuri-A in December 2022. Handing over their request letter in the presence of IVP leaders — Mukesh Goel, Hemchand Goyal, Sanjay Sharma and Anil Rana — Bobi said, “For the last two and a half years, AAP leaders considered me a bonded labourer.”

“In 2022, I was elected on an AAP ticket, but despite being in power in the Delhi Municipal Corporation, the top leadership of the party was unable to run the MCD smoothly. There was no coordination between the top leadership and the corporators, due to which the party came into opposition. Due to [the party] not being able to fulfill promises made to the public, I am resigning from the primary membership of the Aam Aadmi Party,” Bobi stated in their resignation letter.

Addressing the press, Mukesh Goel, who till recently served as the AAP’s Leader of the House in the MCD, said many other councillors have been contacting the IVP to join its membership.

“These corporators want to work for the public, but they are not able to do that work, due to which there is trouble… Unlike the AAP, we will work on issues related to the public. If the ruling party brings any proposal in the interest of the public, then we will support it. If the opposition raises issues related to the public, then we will support it as well.”

With the anti-defection law not applicable to the MCD, the defection of the councillors cannot be challenged. This spells further trouble for the AAP, which lost power in Delhi to the BJP in the February Assembly polls after a decade-long rule.

The AAP councillors’ revolt comes ahead of the June 2 MCD zonal ward committee elections for the posts of chairpersons and deputy chairpersons. This is a crucial process that includes voting to fill two seats on the MCD Standing Committee, an 18-member body that holds significant financial power as it oversees all civic projects exceeding Rs 5 crore.

Due to a tug of war between AAP and BJP, the Standing Committee has remained non-functional since the 2022 MCD elections, leaving many crucial aspects of civic governance in limbo.

Several AAP councillors had earlier told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity that party chief and ex-chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s “limited public appearances and interaction with the AAP rank and file” in the wake of the party’s Assembly poll defeat has workers “demoralised”.

The AAP, in turn, had accused the BJP of allegedly engineering defections through financial inducements. “Each councillor was offered Rs 5 crore,” the AAP had alleged, adding that the BJP was trying to gain “backdoor control” of the MCD ahead of the Standing Committee and ward committee polls.
BJP’s MCD Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh, however, had dismissed these allegations: “AAP’s internal chaos, not BJP, is the reason behind this breakaway. They failed to even maintain basic sanitation during their tenure. This is a result of their own misgovernance.”