After an embarrassing defeat in Delhi civic body polls, the Aam Aadmi Party seems to be headed for another disaster.
Soon after its drubbing, AAP’s Delhi unit convenor Dilip Pandey submitted his resignation to Arvind Kejriwal. Pandey, a crucial cog in the party’s machinery, was overseeing the MCD campaign and strategy along with AAP’s Delhi in-charge Ashish Talwar.
I have resigned frm d post of AAP Delhi Convenor, conveyed to National Convenor @ArvindKejriwal to give this responsibility to someone else.
— Dilip K. Pandey (@dilipkpandey) April 26, 2017
Meanwhile, party’s Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh also announced his resignation on Twitter.
मैंने पंजाब के प्रभारी पद से अपना इस्तीफ़ा राष्ट्रीय संयोजक @ArvindKejriwal जी को दे दिया है, दुर्गेश ने भी सह प्रभारी पद छोड़ा।
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) April 27, 2017
BJP swept the MCD polls with 181 seats out of 270 while AAP finished second with 48. Congress suffered a massive electoral loss by scoring 30 seats.
Apart from these two, Delhi’s in-charge Ashish Talwar also resigned from his post and added that when their party lost in Lok Sabha polls, he was the only one to resign.
“Keeping in line with the same tradition, I resigned as Prabhari of Delhi at around 6pm today,” Talwar tweeted on Thursday.
.@AamAadmiParty Keeping in line with the same tradition, I resigned as Prabhari of Delhi at around 6pm today.
— Ashish Talwar Office (@DelhiTalwar) April 26, 2017
Party MLA from Chandni Chowk Alka Lamba also offered to resign from all party posts following party’s defeat in MCD elections.
मैं व्यक्तिगत रूप से तीनों वार्डस में हुई हार की जिम्मेदारी लेते हुये पार्टी को अपने सभी पदों से और विधायक पद से इस्तीफ़े की पेशकश करती हूँ।
— Alka Lamba (@LambaAlka) April 26, 2017
After its crushing defeat in the civic polls to the BJP in the capital, AAP blamed it on tampering with the voting machines and claimed it was an “EVM wave”. However, contrary to the claims made by party convenor Kejriwal, several volunteers, the backbone of the party, are also refusing to buy the claims made by the leadership.
“We need to see why we lost in Delhi despite winning 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi just two years ago,” said Manish Sisodia.
An MLA from Central Delhi echoed the minister’s sentiments.
“The reasons are shocking as we did not expect to do so badly. Although the party blames EVMs for the defeat and we need to look into the reasons behind the loss, my view is different. But I shall toe the party line on this,” the MLA said.
(Feature image source: PTI)