Eye on Punjab polls, AAP spares dissidents

NEW DELHI: Over the past one month, the AAP has been facing trouble from its four rebel lawmakers, but the party has decided against sacking them ahead of the Punjab

NEW DELHI: Over the past one month, the AAP has been facing trouble from its four rebel lawmakers, but the party has decided against sacking them ahead of the Punjab assembly polls to avoid opening “another front”.

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The party had removed rebels like Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan in the past, but sacking the lawmakers would mean “freedom” from the ambit of the anti-defection law.

Bhagwant Mann, the party’s MP from Punjab, is already in the dock for making a video of the Parliament complex and livestreaming it. He has also been accused by suspended AAP MP Harinder Singh Khalsa of coming to the House drunk, causing embarrassment to the party.

Dharamvira Gandhi, another suspended MP from Patiala, has announced formation of an alternative political front at a time when the AAP is putting all its energy to wrest Punjab from the SAD-BJP coalition in the state assembly polls scheduled early next year.

The two MPs were suspended from the AAP for anti-party activities after they criticised its leadership for expelling Yadav and Bhushan. In Delhi, former minister Asim Ahmed Khan and Timarpur MLA Pankaj Pushkar have created trouble for the party.