The Aam Aadmi Party appeared confident that the decision of former Delhi Assembly Speaker M.S. Dhir to switch allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party will have no bearing on the party’s prospects in the upcoming Assembly elections.
“He was dropped after negative feedback was received about his performance as an MLA from the people of Jangpura, the constituency he represented, as well as observers. He is free to go wherever he can,” said senior party leader Ashutosh.
Another AAP leader said the party was not bothered about a possible dent in their votes. “We will be happy if he contests on a BJP ticket.”
The AAP also dismissed Mr. Dhir’s allegations about the lack of internal democracy in the party and questioned the timing he chose to go public with those.
“[Senior AAP leader] Sanjay Singh and I conveyed the party’s decision to drop him about 15 days ago. Why did he wait all this while?” said Mr. Ashutosh.
The party also took on some sections of the media who speculated about former MLA Harish Khanna joining the BJP.
Party leader Anand Kumar tweeted : “Please verify with Harish ji before putting it on media! Be fare to yourself & your viewers my dear !... To suggest that a person of his stature is joining BJP is not only spreading a lie but an attempt of character assassination...[sic]”.
