Did he pull out of the race or did the Aam Aadmi “cancel” his ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election from Farrukhabad, where the Congress nominee is Union Minister Salman Khurshid?
While Mukul Tripathi said he not only withdrew from the race but also quit the AAP for reasons of “organisational corruption” and lack of “support” from the party, Uttar Pradesh convener Vaibhav Maheshwari said Mr. Tewari did not withdraw from the contest but it was the party which “removed him for misreporting his campaign.”
Mr. Tripathi said the party’s local unit had spent more money than it had collected and had fewer supporters on the ground than it had earlier claimed.
“None of the key leaders like Sanjay Singh take my phone calls. There is no support. The party left me to fend for myself.” A former journalist, Mr. Tripathi alleged that he had caught Abhishek Mishra, the AAP’s in-charge of Farrukhabad, in a sting operation, asking him to use jugad (undue means) to meet top party leaders.
“I worked hard for more than a month in the constituency and gathered data of 20,000 people. Even after this, if I have to use jugad to meet party leaders, I don’t want to embarrass myself,” said Mr. Tripathi, who is differently-abled.
“No national or State leader came to introduce me to the people,” he said.
However, Mr. Maheshwari said Mr. Tewari “has been misreporting about his roadshows. He did not even get vehicle permission for the roadshows, let alone going out to the public. He is making the allegations simply because his ticket was cancelled.”
