New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) found itself facing rebellion and widespread disgruntlement within hours of releasing its list for next month’s Delhi assembly polls.
The party has dropped 15 incumbent MLAs, including former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s grandson Adarsh Shastri, who were part of its 2015 sweep. Many of them have been replaced with turncoats and new joinees, and the leaders are less than pleased.
Badarpur MLA N.D. Sharma resigned Tuesday and accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia of bribery, while others told ThePrint that their hard work had been overlooked.
As of Wednesday evening, the AAP was yet to make an official statement on the matter. ThePrint approached Sisodia for comment but there was no response until the time of publishing this report. Calls and text to AAP MP Sanjay Singh didn’t elicit a reply either.
This report will be updated when a response is received.
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‘Voters betrayed’
N.D. Sharma, who has been replaced with Ram Singh Netaji, fired the first shot, levelling bribery allegations at Kejriwal and Sisodia before the list was finalised Tuesday evening.
After putting in his papers, Sharma again accused the party brass of “selling the ticket” and “betraying” voters.
“Manish Sisodia called me to his residence, saying Ram Singh wants a ticket from your constituency by paying Rs 20 crore-21 crore. He demanded Rs 10 crore from me,” he told journalists in Delhi Wednesday morning. “I refused and left,” he said, adding that he would now contest as an Independent.
Shastri, another high-profile exclusion in the list, joined the party after quitting a fancy job at Apple. He represents Dwarka and, as late as last week, he had been heard saying he was looking forward to contesting again.
He has been replaced by Vinay Mishra, the son of Congress strongman and former Delhi MP Mahabal Mishra who joined the party only two days ago. Mishra contested and lost the Palam seat in 2013.
Speaking to the media, Shastri said he was “shocked and extremely perturbed” by the decision but added that he continued to be with “the Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejirwal”.
Delhi Cantonment MLA Surender Singh, a former NSG commando who participated in the operation to end the 26/11 siege, said he was “quite upset” when he discovered he had been replaced with former defence man Virender Singh Kadian.
“I had worked very hard. Mahilayein yahaan par mera geet gaati hain (women here sing my praise),” he told ThePrint. People in his area, he said, know AAP “through me and not Kejriwal”.
Singh claimed he had approached Sanjay Singh on the matter, saying he was “hopeful that maybe the party changes the decision”.
“I am also meeting the CM in the evening to talk about the same,” he added.
Contesting as an iIndependent, he said, was not an option as he didn’t have the money. “Main sipahi aadmi hoon, mere paas itne kahaan paise (I am a soldier. How will I have so much money?),” he said.
There is also some resentment over the allegedly “dubious” credentials of some leaders nominated. One of the excluded leaders cited as example AAP councillor Abdul Rehman, who has been accused of inciting violence during anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh last month. Rehman is the AAP candidate from Seelampur.
“This is exactly why I didn’t feel as bad… If the party can give a ticket to someone who was responsible for inciting violence, then how is the AAP different from other parties?” said another leader disqualified from the party.
In Matia Mahal, there are intense grumblings about the AAP’s decision to nominate five-term MLA Shoaib Iqbal, a former Congress leader who has been booked in several cases and personally targeted Kejriwal during the 2013 Delhi polls.
Iqbal, who says the cases against him are politically motivated, was defeated by Asim Ahmed Khan of the AAP in 2015.
Khan, who was made a minister in the AAP cabinet, was sacked from the cabinet following allegations of bribery.
While Khan has reportedly achieved reconciliation with the AAP, members of the AAP political affairs committee say party surveys had yielded a bleak picture for him.
One of the dropped MLAs who wished to stay anonymous said he felt cheated.
“I worked very hard. The party can’t ignore our work like this. I feel cheated as the party leadership has chosen to give tickets to outsiders who joined only three days ago over members like us, who have been around a while,” the MLA added, hinting that he might resign if not given “another important position in days to come”.
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Where rebels quit
The AAP has also had to find new faces for four seats where the incumbents jumped ship to the BJP and the Congress.
In Chandni Chowk, where Alka Lamba joined the Congress, the AAP has fielded former Congress leader Prahlad Sawhney. In Karawal Nagar, whose former AAP MLA Kapil Mishra joined the BJP after accusing Kejriwal of corruption, the party has fielded Durgesh Pathak.
In Bijwasan, where its MLA Devender Shekhawat joined the BJP, the AAP has nominated lawyer and party member B.S. Joon. The candidate for Gandhi Nagar, where Anil Bajpai joined the BJP, the AAP has fielded social activist Naveen Choudhary, who was earlier associated with the Congress.
Other incumbents left out of nominations include Manoj Kumar, who was convicted last year for assaulting a woman, with Kuldeep Kumar getting the AAP ticket for Kondli.
The party also refused to renominate Pankaj Pushkar, who is considered close to former AAP leader Prashant Bhushan and has been rebelling against Kejriwal, from Timarpur. The AAP has instead nominated Dilip Pandey, a key confidant of Kejriwal, from the seat.
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AAP should not go the way of other political parties, if allegations of “selling” tickets to turncoats are true.