The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate from Ferozepur (rural) constituency in Punjab, Ashu Bangar, on Monday quit the party and joined the Congress, accusing the AAP leadership in Delhi of running the party like a private company.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party hit back at the Congress, alleging it of sabotaging its candidates under a conspiracy.
Mr. Bangar said Punjabi leaders were facing humiliation at the hands of AAP leaders from Delhi. He said the decisions surrounding the affairs of the State unit were being imposed by the central leadership without taking the members from Punjab into confidence. “Candidates are being threatened to not speak on the pretext that their tickets will be cancelled. Also, the party is working as B-team of the BJP,” Mr. Bangar alleged.
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Sources said other AAP leaders could join the Congress in the next few days in the run-up to the Assembly election.
AAP senior leader Harpal Cheema accused the Congress of tearing apart AAP candidates, which he termed as a “vile act of politics”. “Our candidates are being sabotaged under a conspiracy. Congress has approached many of our candidates and is giving them all kinds of lures to join Congress. Congress is also intimidating AAP candidates,” he said.
He said Mr. Bangar has a hospital in Moga against which a case has been going on. “Due to the fear of going to jail, he joined the Congress. The Aam Aadmi Party has no need for such cowardly candidates.”
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Taking a dig at the AAP, the Congress’s media in-charge, Alka Lamba, said, “History repeats itself once again. In 2017 similar allegations were made against AAP & Punjabis never forgave them. It shows that only faces have changed but their modus operandi remains the same.”