Several AAP members in Goa resign alleging interference from Delhi

Amidst allegations of ‘undue’ interference by the team deputed from Delhi to Goa, Elvis Gomes, the former state convenor of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), party leader Sidharth Karapurkar, and several other core group members resigned from the primary membership of the party on Friday.

While tendering his resignation, Gomes alleged that AAP despite opposition from within the party is compromising on the core values it propagated.

“For the past two months, we had problems with how the Goa unit of AAP was running with a team from Delhi camping here. We were having a problem working on the instructions of the Delhi unit. We feel that for running a party, autonomy should be given to the regional units. We were told that ‘Swaraj’ is the voice of the people, but there is no ‘Swaraj’ in getting instructions,” said Gomez told reporters.

He said that with him, various regional teams have also resigned from their primary membership because AAP is not following the values it stood for.

“We were influenced by the India Against Corruption movement, but now they are taking in people facing criminal charges. The people who joined voluntarily in 2016 were all honest people. They came to the party for the message of no corruption, no criminalisation, and no communalisation,” he stated.

Gomez added that things were going smooth with the party in Goa, and then the team from Delhi came and started working without taking them into confidence.

“Then it felt like there were two units of the party working independently in the state. Our volunteers have tried to resolve the issues. They met the senior national leaders and also wrote to them, but when any satisfactory answers were not given, we resigned,” he stated.