Delhi polls: Dropped AAP MLAs deliberate on future course of action

New Delhi, January 15

Aam Aadmi Party’s decision to drop 15 of its sitting Members of Legislative Assembly seems to have left some of its legislators disappointed.

Badarpur MLA ND Sharma, who quit the party hours before the list was announced, has accused the AAP of selling tickets.

“We joined the AAP for clean politics but now there is not much difference between AAP and other political parties now. The hard work of volunteers was ignored,” Sharma said.

Another dropped MLA, Delhi Cantt MLA Surender Singh, is planning to contest independently. One of his close aides said he would be interacting with the people in his constituency before taking a call on contesting as an independent candidate.

Some MLAs however remain committed to the party. Take Timarpur MLA Pankaj Pushkar, who was replaced by Dilip Pandey. Unaffected by the AAP’s decision to not give him a ticket in the upcoming polls, Pushkar said he considers himself as a foot soldier of the party and not getting an assembly ticket is a very small part.

“There is no question of running independently. It is a party consisting of honest people and strengthening this party has been my aim. I am not at all disappointed. It is part of democracy. Some decisions might hurt you. But it is a very small part,” he said.

Former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s grandson Adarsh Shastri, who is a Dwarka MLA, has also been dropped from the party’s list and replaced by Vinay Kumar Mishra, son of former Congress parliamentarian Mahabal Mishra. Sources close to Shastri said he is disappointed but plans to stay with the party.

Yet others, like Kalkaji MLA Avtar Singh, remain undecided. Avtar Singh, who was replaced by Oxford-educated and AAP spokesperson Atishi, said he was still considering his options.

“I haven’t thought about what to do next,” Singh said in response to a question on his plans.

On Tuesday, the AAP had announced its list of 70 candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal contesting again from New Delhi seat and his deputy Manish Sisodia from Patparganj seat.

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said new responsibilities would be given to the sitting MLAs who were not been tickets for the assembly polls. PTI