AAP ‘stung’ by Anjali Damania’s exit, crisis within party deepens
New Delhi: Already beleaguered by infighting in its top ranks, the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday suffered a double blow after a “sting” surfaced, reportedly revealing party convener Arvind Kejriwal’s intention to poach Congress legislators to form government in Delhi, following which Anjali Damania, a prominent leader from Maharashtra, resigned from the party.
Announcing her departure on a micro-blogging site, Ms Damania said that she backed the Delhi CM for “principles, not horse-trading”. The developments came even as the AAP laid the ground for the ouster of founder leaders Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, with its legislators signing a petition to expel the trio, accusing them of anti-party activities.
“I quit... I have not come into AAP for this nonsense. I believed him... I backed Arvind for principles, not horse-trading,” Ms Damania tweeted, along with the video link of the sting in which a voice, purportedly that of Mr Kejriwal, can be heard telling former AAP MLA from Rohini Rajesh Garg to persuade six Congress MLAs (of which three were Muslims) to float a new party and then support the AAP to form government in Delhi.
Soon after Ms Damania announced her decision, Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan issued a joint statement, launching a scathing attack on the party’s national convener for making “desperate efforts” by writing to Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung to postpone the dissolution of the Delhi Assembly and surreptitiously making attempts to form government in Delhi with the Congress’ support after the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. “Mr Kejriwal was adamant on formation of government. We opposed this and insisted that it would send a very wrong signal among the volunteers across the country, as the Congress has recently been rejected by Delhi voters completely. However, Mr Kejriwal went ahead with his efforts on formation of government and he continued till a month prior to elections (sic),” the duo charged.
