The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress on Sunday said the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is on the road to disintegration after Delhi Cabinet Minister Kailash Gahlot quit the party.
AAP’s prominent Jat face and Najafgarh legislator, Mr. Gahlot, held portfolios of Transport, Home, Information Technology, Administrative Reforms, and Women and Child Development in the Atishi government.
Commenting on the leader’s exit, the ruling party alleged that his resignation was the result of a consistent targeting by Central probe agencies at the behest of the BJP.
The BJP trashed the charge and termed Delhi’s ruling AAP a sinking ship with its leaders deserting the party ahead of the Assembly poll due in February next year.
The Congress too slammed AAP over the Minister’s exit, saying it laid bare its “misrule” and “corruption”.
Mr. Gahlot is the third prominent face of AAP that has quit the party this year, the other two being former Ministers and Dalit leaders Rajendra Pal Gautam and Raaj Kumar Anand.
While Mr. Gautam joined the Congress in September, Mr. Anand had quit the party ahead of the Lok Sabha election and later joined the BJP.
‘Left with no choice’
Slamming the BJP, AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh alleged that the BJP has been continuously “harassing” Mr. Gahlot through raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“This is the BJP’s nature. They accuse leaders of corruption, raid their homes, and conduct loud press conferences. But when those leaders join the BJP, all charges disappear,” Mr. Singh added.
AAP’s national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar too alleged that ongoing investigations against Mr. Gahlot and his family had left him with no choice but to join the BJP.
“Many ED-CBI cases were ongoing against him. He thought joining the BJP was better than going to jail,” she said, accusing the BJP of resorting to conspiracies ahead of the Assembly poll.
Ms. Kakkar said just hours before the Minister’s resignation, his social media accounts were full of posts supporting AAP. “He took this step under pressure,” she added.
Reacting to the accusations, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said Mr. Gahlot’s resignations is the “beginning of AAP’s end”.
‘False claims’
“Mr. Gahlot has raised the same issues [in his resignation letter] that the BJP has been saying for long such as corruption, cleaning of the Yamuna and the wasting of taxpayers’ money on the renovation of former CM Kejriwal’s official residence,” he said.
“It is shameful that whenever an AAP leader leaves the party, the entire Arvind Kejriwal team claims pressure from the ED or CBI, and indulges in character assassination,” he said.
‘AAP lost people’s trust’
Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav too alleged that AAP has been caught in a “web of corruption, commission and maladministration”, with its leaders either going to jail or deserting it fearing ED action. “Mr. Gahlot has only validated Congress’s charges of corruption and misrule,” he said, adding that by mentioning the controversy surrounding the renovation of the then CM’s house, he struck the “final nail in AAP’s coffin”. “AAP has lost people’s trust and it is disintegrating on expected lines,” he said.
Published – November 18, 2024 01:35 am IST
