Delhi Assembly Elections: Denied tickets, 7 AAP MLAs quit party, blame ‘corruption’
“There is no point in joining Congress... If the BJP invites us with respect and honor, we may join,” Madan Lal said.
3 min read
Bhavna Gaur from Palam assembly constituency (L), and Bhupinder Singh Joon from Bijwasan (R)JUST FOUR days ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls, seven sitting MLAs from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) resigned from the primary membership of the party giving the same reasons: “growing corruption in the party” and “deviation from the values and principles” on which the party was founded.
All seven are outgoing MLAs and have not been given tickets this time.
The seven are Bhavna Gaur from Palam assembly constituency, Bhupinder Singh Joon from Bijwasan, Pawan Sharma from Adarsh Nagar, Madan Lal from Kasturba Nagar, Rajesh Rishi from Janakpuri, Rohit Kumar Mehrolia from Trilokpuri and Naresh Yadav from Mehrauli constituency.
Mehrauli’s Naresh Yadav was convicted and sentenced to a two-year term in November by a Punjab court in the 2016 Quran desecration case.
While the AAP had announced him as its candidate despite the conviction, it changed its mind in December and replaced him with Mahender Chaudhary.
Kasturba Nagar MLA Madan Lal, who has been replaced by Ramesh Pehelwan, said, “I lost faith in Arvind Kejriwal and the party… The party which was formed in the promise to wipe out corruption in Delhi today is committing corruption…We had to resign one day… The seven of us discussed among ourselves and decided to tender our resignation today as we thought it was the perfect time.”
He also said that the seven of them are open to joining the BJP soon.
“There is no point in joining Congress… If the BJP invites us with respect and honor, we may join,” he said.
Asked if the AAP not giving them tickets to contest in the upcoming polls was the reason for their resignations, he said, “You can say it was one of the reasons because the party removed those who worked for their constituency but gave tickets to candidates with criminal backgrounds and multiple FIRs against them… They dropped over 20 MLAs and new candidates are not doing well, they are not going to win… They took money in exchange for tickets… We don’t want to be in a party that is corrupt, thinking only about its political ambition and not the people.”
Lal, who has been with the party since its inception, in his resignation letter to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal wrote, “I hereby resign from the primary membership of the AAP as I have lost faith in you and the party…”
Brushing away any concerns, a senior AAP leader, however, said, “The party dropped these MLAs and others, including senior members like Dilip Pandey, Ram Niwas Goel, due to increased anti-incumbency.”
In 2024, former ministers Rajendra Pal Gautam, Kailash Gahlot and Raj Kumar Anand and Chhatarpur MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar quit the party, citing “growing corruption” or “departure from the party’s core values” as reasons.
Gautam joined the Congress, while Anand, Gahlot and Tanwar joined the BJP and are contesting on party tickets from Karol Bagh, Bijwasan and Chhatarpur, respectively.
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