Rebels of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who resigned from the party, announced having formed a new political party, Apna Punjab, which will contest the 2017 assembly polls, on Sunday.
Having resigned as vice-president of the administration and grievances cell of the AAP, former bureaucrat Karamjit Singh Sran, while addressing a press conference here said the AAP has abandoned its principles so they decided to leave it and form a new outfit. He, along with Babu Singh Brar, Faridkot zone in-charge of party’s intellectual cell, resigned from party on Sunday.
Both were accompanied by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who recently resigned as Ferozepur Parliament zone coordinator with Devinder Singh, former vice-president of farmers’ wing. Sran has been appointed the president of party.
Sran said the AAP in Punjab is being run by the Delhi leaders, and the Punjab leaders are being sidelined. “When we joined the party we had expected internal democracy, financial transparency and no high command culture, but with time we learnt that all these things are being compromised,” he said, adding that the AAP has raised hope among many that they can be candidates in elections and for that they are spending money on party campaigning.
“We had raised issues with five top party leaders of Punjab, but they expressed helplessness, saying that they can do nothing. We approached the higher leaders in Delhi also, but they said it will go as it is. When we raised the issue of so many ticket aspirants, the party’s top leadership said they would exploit the emotions of these people,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“We had raised issues with five top party leaders of Punjab, but they expressed helplessness, saying that they can do nothing. We approached the higher leaders in Delhi also, but they said it will go as it is. When we raised the issue of so many ticket aspirants, the party’s top leadership said they would exploit the emotions of these people,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Criticising the AAP’s Delhi government, they said a misinformation campaign is being carried about the Delhi government’s achievements, but expressed that the people are in delusion that the AAP will improve the situation of Punjab.
The rebel AAP leaders announced to contest the 2017 assembly polls under a new political party and said they will come with their programme and policies. They also came down heavily on the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government and said the government has failed in the state as there is “widespread corruption and drug abuse”.
Meanwhile, the AAP termed the leaders who resigned from the party as those sent by Badals. Joint secretary of Punjab legal cell of party Gurlabh Singh Mahal said while being a bureaucrat Sran has remained right hand of the Badals and these leaders were in the AAP just to demoralise the party volunteers.