Don’t air grievances in public, Sisodia & Jain tell AAP MLAs

AAP incharge for Punjab affairs Manish Sisodia and his co-incharge Satyendar Jain have asked all party MLAs not to air their grievances in public and put up a united face.

Advertisement

“You cannot have a public perception of being at loggerheads, by taking in your own party leaders,” the duo told the MLAs in a meeting held on Tuesday evening. The meeting is being kept under wraps by the party.

After the AAP MLAs went for a group photograph with Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Tuesday early evening, they all converged at the Chief Minister’s residence for a meeting. “When we reached there, Sisodia was already there and Jain reached a few minutes later. The CM was also present in the meeting,” an AAP MLA present in the meeting, confided in The Tribune.

In this meeting, which remains shrouded in secrecy, the MLAs were reportedly told that the party had already started conducting regular surveys to check the popularity of their government as well as each of the 94 MLAs in their respective constituencies. “Our survey reports suggest that people are happy with the developmental work. But they are apprehensive about the MLAs speaking against party leaders and decisions. You have to act as a cohesive unit, and not appear to be at loggerheads,” the party incharges reportedly told the MLAs.

The MLAs were also told that the government was initiating development works in each constituency, based on what the voters there wanted. “Also, you will have to keep your volunteers motivated and use them to reach out to voters,” said Sisodia and Jain.

Another MLA said they gathered the impression that works related to education sector would be dealt with by Sisodia and issues related to health would be dealt with by Jain. “Since some of us have earlier conveyed to the party high command that we need separate budgets for each constituency, we were told that there would be no shortage of funds. That is why Rs 5 crore budget has been allocated for each constituency in the Budget presented yesterday. The MLA will get a development work proposal passed from the committee in each constituency, headed by deputy commissioner of the district. The works can then be carried out,” he said.