Eight AAP MLAs Resign After Ticket Denials for Delhi Election

Eight AAP MLAs resigned on Friday after being denied tickets for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. The election is scheduled for February 5, with vote counting taking place on February 8. AAP is contesting all 70 seats in Delhi, but, notably, the party dropped 20 sitting MLAs and replaced them with candidates from BJP and Congress.

The Resigning Legislators

1. Girish Soni (Madipur): Soni expressed his discontent, criticizing the party’s direction. He posted, “Being shocked by all these issues, today I am resigning from all the responsibilities of Aam Aadmi Party and from the primary membership of Aam Aadmi Party.” Clearly, he was upset by the internal activities within the party.
2. Rohit Kumar Mehraulia (Trilokpuri): Mehraulia also resigned, citing unfulfilled promises to uplift the Dalit/Valmiki community. He accused the party of exploiting his community for political gain and failing to address issues such as employment. Consequently, he felt disillusioned with AAP.
3. Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar): Lal resigned after AAP denied him a ticket for the upcoming election. He openly expressed that he had lost faith in both AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, signaling his frustration with the party’s decisions.
4. Bhavna Gaur (Palam): Gaur, too, resigned, stating that she had lost trust in both Arvind Kejriwal and the party itself. In her resignation letter, shared on X, she reflected on her disillusionment with the party’s leadership.
5. Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri): Rishi was another legislator who chose to resign, accusing AAP of abandoning its core values. He criticized the party for straying from its founding principles of corruption-free governance, transparency, and accountability. This, in turn, led to his resignation from all party positions.
6. Pawan Kumar Sharma (Adarsh Nagar): Sharma also resigned, expressing disappointment over the party’s shift from its original honest ideology. He said, “I am very sad to see the plight of The Aam Aadmi Party. Please accept my resignation.”
7. BS Joon (Bijwasan): Joon resigned due to the party’s increasing deviation from its core values. He criticized the growing centralization and the lack of internal democracy within AAP.
8. Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli): Yadav’s resignation stemmed from what he called the party’s corruption. He recalled AAP’s origins in Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement and expressed regret that the party had not lived up to its original goals of eliminating corruption.

Overall, these resignations reflect mounting dissatisfaction within the party. Many leaders are feeling sidelined and disillusioned with Kejriwal’s leadership, which has sparked frustrations about the direction in which AAP is heading.