AAP to contest bypolls

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 28

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest the byelections to four Vidhan Sabha seats which are likely to be held in October.

An AAP core committee meeting, held under the chairmanship of state unit president Bhagwant Mann, decided this today.

Sources said the party unanimously decided to contest the byelections in Jalalabad, Phagwara, Dakha and Mukerian. While the first two seats fell vacant after sitting MLAs Sukhbir Singh Badal and Som Prakash were elected to the Lok Sabha, the Dakha seat fell vacant after MLA HS Phoolka had resigned. The Mukerian seat has fallen vacant after the demise of Rajnish Kumar Babbi.

Accusing the state government of taking advantage of its “brute majority”, Mann earlier said the Congress ministers and leaders in Sangrur were pressurising AAP supporters to leave the party. “People are getting fed up with this majoritarianism by the Congress, “ he rued.

In preparation for the 2022 Assembly elections, the party also decided to start a membership drive by building an Aam Aadmi Army. A booklet was released by the party in this regard today. It had Mann in prominence, while party supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s photo was in the background.

Interestingly, Sunam MLA Aman Arora, who had some “differences” with state party leaders, was conspicuous by his absence during the meeting. Trying to play it down, Mann said all was well and Arora was in Delhi for some personal work.

Asked if the party was looking at consolidating itself by approaching the four rebel MLAs in the Kanwar Sandhu camp, Mann said a committee of party leaders, headed by Sarvjit Kaur Manuke, was on the job.