In a jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) just weeks before the crucial municipal polls on April 23, its Bawana MLA Ved Parkash on Monday quit the party and joined the BJP while accusing the Arvind Kejriwal-led government of failing to fulfil promises made in the run up to the 2015 Assembly polls.
The 43-year-old legislator has resigned as MLA, bringing down the ruling party’s strength to 65 in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.
Mr. Parkash also shot off a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal listing seven promises that the AAP government had made to the “rural and Dalit population of Delhi but had failed to deliver on”.
‘Many MLAs unhappy’
Mr. Parkash joined the BJP at its Delhi unit office in the presence of Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari and State party in-charge Shyam Jaju. At the event, Mr. Parkash claimed that “30 to 35 AAP MLAs”, who were unhappy with the party’s leadership, were seeking to quit.
A BJP source said that the trigger for Mr. Parkash’s decision to quit the AAP was his “disagreement with the senior AAP leadership’s decision to field certain candidates” in the municipal polls.
“I had joined the AAP with a hope that there will be some change, but I am disillusioned... I have neither quit under duress nor will I take any post in the BJP and will abide by the decisions taken by the party leadership,” the former AAP MLA, who also held the post of the Delhi Dialogue Commission’s Chairman for the north district, said at the press conference.
“I have been influenced by the BJP’s recent decision to make a priest [Yogi Adityanath] the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a saint and with this hope I have joined the BJP,” Mr. Parkash said.
He added that the AAP was “being run on laptops” and its senior leadership was “unavailable for local MLAs” and that Mr. Kejriwal was “only interested in defaming” PM Modi.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tiwari said: “Corruption has not been brought down in Delhi. There is corruption in every department in government. People are unhappy with the government’s performance. Every person is feeling cheated”.
Letter by ex-MLA
In his letter to Mr. Kejriwal, Mr. Parkash wrote that he was upset with how the party came to power promising to uproot corruption, but has done nothing towards it. “I am deeply saddened that in the last two years the party has neither done anything, nor shown the intent to stop corruption in the Delhi government,” his letter read.
He also said that the government has failed to fulfil any promises it made to the voters of rural constituencies. “Despite having the fund, nothing has been done for Dalit labourers and farmers. The fund hasn’t been utilised,” the letter read.
