Day after joining AAP, 2 Cong councillors return

In a video message recorded overnight, Mehdi said that he has made a mistake by joining the AAP and he seeks forgiveness from the people and the party leadership

Less than a day after defecting to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a vice-president and two newly elected councillors of the Delhi Congress returned to the party fold, and issued statement seeking forgiveness for their decision to leave the party for joining the AAP.

Delhi state Congress vice-president Ali Mehdi with newly elected MCD councillors Sabila Begum and Nazia Khatoon, during a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

The Congress had won nine wards in the 2022 MCD elections.

In a video message recorded overnight, Mehdi said that he has made a mistake by joining the AAP and he seeks forgiveness from the people and the party leadership. “I am a worker of Congress party. I don’t need any posts. My father has been working with the Congress from the past over 40 years and we will remain with Congress. I have made a very big mistake and I seek forgiveness from the people of my area, the Congress party and its leadership. All other block heads and the two councillors are also coming back to the Congress,” Mehdi said.

He added that councillors Sabila Begum (from Mustafabad) and Nazia Khatoon (from Brijpuri) have also rejoined the Congress.

Abhishek Dutt, who is also a Delhi Congress vice-president said that he was happy to see Mehdi back in the party. “We will work together to strengthen the Congress. Mehdi and two newly elected councilors have joined the Congress,” he added.

To be sure, the anti-defection law does not allow apply to the MCD councillors.

In other videos, also purportedly released by Mehdi, the Delhi Congress leader said that they were approached by the AAP and got “lured in the name of development work for Mustafabad”. This prompted the BJP to criticise the AAP for allegedly luring councillors from other parties to join them.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said that he has seen the new statement issued by Ali Mehdi.

“In his new statement, Mehdi has said that he had joined the Aam Admi party because he wanted to work towards the development of his area along with the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. He must have been contacted by his party after which he has changed his mind again,” Singh said.

On Friday, welcoming the Congress leaders into the party fold, AAP’s MCD incharge and Rajendra Nagar MLA Durgesh Pathak had appealed leaders from all parties, including the BJP, to join the AAP for faster development of Delhi.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that the development has exposed the AAP. “AAP is engaged in buying the newly elected councillors. They have no moral right to talk about people defecting to other parties. AAP leadership and the Delhi CM should answer if they were involved in this operation,” he added.

Anil Gupta, retired chief law officer of the erstwhile North MCD, said that the anti-defection does not law apply to the municipal corporation. “Councillors are allowed to cross vote or change party affiliations. No whip can be issued by the ruling party or leader of the House. Around two years back, the law department had recommended that anti-defection provisions, on the lines of local bodies in Manipur, should be adopted in Delhi but no progress has been made in that case,” he added.