Week after Ashutosh, Ashish Khetan quits AAP, says not about Lok Sabha ticket but self-doubt

Khetan told The Indian Express that he sent his resignation to the party on August 15 — the day Ashutosh had announced his decision to quit. He had joined the party in 2014.

“It has been accepted. I was offered the (Lok Sabha) ticket twice. But I conveyed my inability to contest to the party,” the 42-year-old former journalist said.

Khetan also dismissed murmurs within the party that his decision was allegedly linked to the denial of a ticket to contest from the New Delhi constituency, a seat which he lost to BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi by over 1.6 lakh votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

“It is not about a ticket here or election there. It is about my own personal journey and how I could make an impact,” he said.

Khetan had in April quit from the post of vice-chairman of the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission, a Delhi government think-tank, citing his desire to join the legal profession. He was appointed to the post in 2015, and had since then enjoyed a Cabinet minister’s status.

“I am taking up all kinds of cases — commercial, criminal, arbitration, etc,” he said, adding that contrary to talks in the party, he has “no immediate plans of going abroad” for further studies.

After quitting DDC, Khetan, who remained an AAP spokesperson, had said there was a “sense of frustration in the government”. “An advisory body can only be as effective as the implementing departments,” he had said.

Meanwhile, in a Facebook post, Khetan said he was “plagued with self-doubt and the question of whether I wanted to continue in electoral politics” for the past two years, and that he had firmed up his mind to quit active politics after much deliberation.

Khetan added that he held back his decision as AAP was beset with a number of troubles, but decided to go ahead with the resignation after the July 4 Supreme Court verdict on the allocation of powers between the elected government and the Lt Governor.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said AAP was crumbling. “Desertion by founder members establishes Kejriwal is a Tughlaqi autocrat who cannot digest any vocal difference.” Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee said the exits “reflect the dictatorial behaviour of Kejriwal”.