Days after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader from Punjab H S Phoolka quit the party, rebel leader and former Leader of Opposition in the state legislative Assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Sunday gave up his primary membership. He cited party convenor Arvind Kejriwal's "dictatorial attitude" as the reason behind his decision. Khaira will, however, not resign as an MLA from Bholath for now. Rebel AAP leader in Punjab Sukhpal Khaira resigns from primary membership of AAP.@IndianExpress — Man Aman Singh Chhina (@manaman_chhina) January 6, 2019 Alleging that the party had "totally deviated" from the ideology and principles on which it was formed post the Anna Hazare movement, Khaira, in his resignation letter, said, "The "current political culture of traditional parties of the country stands badly decayed, due to which immense hope was generated by the formation of AAP." "..unfortunately after joining the party I realised that the hierarchy of AAP was no different from the traditional centralised political parties..," he added. Reacting to the development, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said, "If he wants to work for the nation, he should stay with us, if he wants to work for his own interests and post then he can go anywhere, how does it concern us?" Khaira, who was suspended from AAP for alleged "anti-party activities" and for “continuously attacking central and state leadership” in November last year, is expected to launch his new political party Punjab Democratic Alliance on January 8 in Chandigarh. Last month, he had announced the formation of the party with Lok Insaaf Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, suspended AAP MP Dr Dharamvir Gandhi and other 'like-minded parties' in the state. The rebel AAP leader had said that the alliance would aim to liberate Punjab from the “clutches of corrupt traditional parties and the corrupt feudal families of Badal, Capt Amarinder and others”. On January 3, senior lawyer Phoolka had resigned from the party's membership. The Indian Express reported that according to sources, a key reason for Phoolka’s resignation is the failure of the central leadership to take problems in the Punjab unit seriously and to react to feedback.
