Two AAP MLAs quit after being denied ticket One of them joins Cong
| Date :19-Jan-2020 |
NEW DELHI :
IN A setback to the AAP, two of its MLAs quit the party after they were denied ticket for the February 8 Delhi Assembly election with one of them joining the Congress on Saturday. An Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said the resignations of Dwarka MLA Adarsh Shastri and Hari Nagar MLA Jagdeep Singh was “unfortunate but expected”.
While Shastri joined the Congress on Saturday, Singh said he was in talks with the Shiromani Akali Dal, an ally of the BJP. Shastri, who was among the 15 members of the outgoing Assembly not fielded by the AAP this time, alleged that the party was “selling” tickets and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of acting in an autocratic manner. Shastri alleged that the AAP pretended to be an honest party and “made bus tickets free for women but are charging Rs 10 crore for an Assembly seat ticket”. Countering Shastri’s allegations, another AAP leader said that when tickets are denied, people make such claims.
“Does that mean when he previously contested from the AAP, he bought the ticket. The ticket distribution was strictly made on the basis of the performance of the MLAs which was closely scrutinised. All those MLAs whose performance was found to be not up to the mark were dropped,” he said. In the Dwarka seat, the AAP replaced Shastri, the grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, by Vinay Kumar Mishra, Congress leader Mahabal Mishra’s son who joined the party from Congress just a day before the candidates’ list was released. Singh was replaced by former Congress councillor Rajkumari Dhillon who had joined the party with Mishra.
Singh said he was disappointed with the party for denying him a ticket and nominating Dhillon. “Even during the Lok Sabha election, I raised my objection over alliance with the Congress and now they have brought in five people from Congress who are directly or indirectly associated with (anti-Sikh riots convict) Sajjan Kumar,” he said. Congress workers protest against Sonia over ticket distribution: A GROUP of Congress workers protested against their own party president Sonia Gandhi outside her residence over ticket distribution for forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections. The protesters, from Patel Nagar and Karawal Nagar Assembly constituencies, raised slogans ahead of the party’s announcement of election candidates. The group was upset over speculations that leaders Arvind Singh and Harman Singh might not get tickets from Karawal Nagar and Patel Nagar constituencies, respectively.
3 Delhi Cabinet Ministers file nominations
NEW DELHI :
THREE Delhi Cabinet Ministers and Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Pal Gautam on Saturday filed nominations for the Assembly elections. While Rai filed nomination from the Babarpur seat, Pal filed his nominations from Seemapuri. Hussain filed his nomination from the Ballimaran seat. Apart from them, AAP’s Raghav Chadha also filed nomination from the Rajinder Nagar seat. A number of other party candidates also filed their nominations on Saturday. Nominations for the Delhi elections began on Tuesday. The last date to file nominations is January 21, the scrutiny will take place on January 22 while the last date of withdrawal of candidature will be January 24. Party chief Arvind Kejriwal will file his nomination for the New Delhi seat on Monday.