Jolt for Haridwar BJP as youth leader Sethi resigns

HARIDWAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today got a major jolt as Sunil Sethi, a youth leader and president of the traders’ fraternity, resigned from the primary membership of the party, accusing city legislator Madan Kaushik and Mayor Manoj Garg of not being able to live up to the expectations of the voters.

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, October 24

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today got a major jolt as Sunil Sethi, a youth leader and president of the traders’ fraternity, resigned from the primary membership of the party, accusing city legislator Madan Kaushik and Mayor Manoj Garg of not being able to live up to the expectations of the voters.

Having held organisational posts such as the district party coordinator, representative of the Mayor and Mahanagar Vyapar Mandal president, Sunil Sethi has been quite active on social and issues related with the public directly.

Of late, he has even went beyond party lines by protesting against the “lacklustre” working of the BJP-dominated Municipal Corporation, and even blaming Mayor Manoj Garg for not being able to control outbreak of dengue and chikungunya in the city.

Announcing his resignation, Sethi questioned the lavish spending on the Divali Milan function organised by three-time city legislator Madan Kaushik and Mayor Manoj Garg at Prem Nagar ashram convention hall yesterday, in which around 15,000 people took part.

“Kaushik and Garg drew the crowd by offering them sweet boxes and gifts. They have failed on development front and couldn’t address the local issues. Now they are distributing gifts to save their vote bank,” he said.

He said the central Haridwar faced waterlogging woes for 15 years, but the problem was addressed only three months ago, that too by Chief Minister Harish Rawat. “The BJP MLA and the Mayor live within a radius of 400-metre of the most affected area, Chandracharya square. From waterlogging, garbage disposal, sanitation, recarpeting of roads, effective sewerline to health care, the city lags way behind in comparison to huge funds and taxes the civic body collects. While, lakhs were spend on Divali Milan convention, not a single penny was spend by them from their own for fogging in the past three months, when dengue gripped more than 1,200 people in Haridwar,” added Sethi, who is likely to join the Congress.

Congress Mahanagar unit president Anshul Shrikunj said such activists were welcome into the party fold, who work for the people diligently. “It depends upon the high command to induct anyone into the party,” he said.

BJP district vice-president Vikas Tiwari termed Sethi’s resignation as unfortunate and rubbished his allegations. “People know the development works Kaushik and Garg have done. The huge participation by the people during the Divali Milan programme suggests their popularity,” he added.