Good riddance: AAP on state president's switching sides

Tribune News Service

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, April 9

Good riddance! That’s the common feeling in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the defection of its state president Anup Kesari, along with two other state leaders, to the BJP.

Kesari, along with state organisation secretary Satish Thakur and district president (Una) Iqbal Singh, joined the BJP at the residence of national BJP president JP Nadda in New Delhi last night.

The top AAP leadership and common workers say that there were several complaints pending against Kesari, including of mischievous behaviour with women, and the party had decided to expel him.

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to attack the BJP. He twitted that “if they (BJP) had worked honestly for people, they would not have felt compelled to take a tainted leader from other party”. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia twitted that “Kesari was to be expelled from the party today for his mischievous behaviour with women”. The local AAP leadership also called Kesari a bad influence in the party, and claimed that everyone was happy with him joining the BJP.

Asked why Kesari was not expelled from the party until now, as the allegations against him were not levelled recently, local AAP leaders said that an inquiry was being conducted against him and he was totally isolated in the party for nearly a month now. “Did anyone see him anywhere near Kejriwal during the roadshow in Mandi? Is it normal to ignore the state president like this? He was ignored because the party had decided to expel him,” said a local AAP leader. Kesari, a lawyer by profession, was a lower-rung BJP leader in Una before he joined AAP a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, common AAP workers believe that Kesari’s exit will not make any difference to the party. “The state president leaving the party makes a good headline, but his exit won’t make any difference to AAP. He was not a mass leader and hardly had any support within the party,” said a party worker from Shimla.

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