AAP’S 8 MLAS RESIGN: A major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came on Friday when 8 of its MLAs resigned. These legislators, upset over their tickets being cut, resigned from both their positions and party membership.
Just five days before the Delhi Assembly elections, chaos erupted within AAP. The dissatisfaction arose because these MLAs were replaced by other candidates for the elections. On Friday evening, seven MLAs resigned one after the other, and around 10 PM, Girish Soni, the MLA from Madipur and a Dalit leader, also severed his ties with Arvind Kejriwal’s party. This wave of resignations has been termed as the biggest split within AAP so far.
The resignations of these MLAs are being seen as a major blow to AAP, as many of them had been long-time members of the party. Some were repeat MLAs and had strong support in their constituencies. As current legislators, they had a large number of people in their contact, making their resignations significant in this tight election. This has made the upcoming election more competitive and interesting.
AAP has replaced 16 of its sitting MLAs with new faces for the elections on February 5. Rakhi Birla, who had been an MLA from Mangolpuri, was nominated from Madipur this time instead of Girish Soni. However, with Soni’s resignation, Birla now faces a greater challenge.
So far, the following MLAs have resigned: Madan Lal from Kasturba Nagar, Bhavna Gaur from Palam, Naresh Yadav from Mahrauli, Rohit Mehrolia from Trilokpuri, Pawan Sharma from Adarsh Nagar, B.S. June from Bijwasan, and Rajesh Rishi from Janakpuri.
Regarding the resignations, AAP’s national spokesperson Rina Gupta criticized the resigning MLAs, stating that surveys conducted by the party revealed that these legislators were not available to the public in their respective constituencies, which is why they were not given tickets. Gupta added, “We didn’t give them tickets based on the survey results. Now, since they didn’t get the tickets, they are joining other parties, but that’s a part of politics.”