BJP MCD councillor Aarti Yadav joins AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a statement on Sunday said that a current councillor of the municipal corporation of Delhi (MCD), Aarti Yadav, has joined the party from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Yadav had won the 2017 municipal polls as an independent candidate and joined the BJP, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019

Yadav, who is the councillor of ward no 49 in southwest Delhi’s Kapashera, said on Sunday, “I want to work for the people in my ward and I can see opportunity to do good work only in the AAP. There is too much corruption in the BJP.”

The AAP’s MLA Atishi said, “Aarti Yadav, along with former councillor from the same ward, Anil Yadav, have joined the AAP. We welcome them. Several leaders of the BJP are fed up with the corruption of the BJP-ruled MCDs. To contribute towards development-centric politics, they are joining the AAP.”

The BJP dismissed the allegations as “baseless”.

BJP-Delhi spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “These are baseless allegations. Her (Yadav’s) switching allegiance at regular intervals reflects that she is not interested in public service but she is on a lookout for some sort of political power. Moreover, such political switching of loyalty ahead of municipal elections by power seekers is nothing new. The BJP is not worried about this.” Delhi will go to the municipal polls in 2022.

While the AAP is in charge of the city government, the BJP rules all three municipal corporations.