New Delhi/Mumbai: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) suffered a body blow on Wednesday after an audio tape surfaced that purportedly had Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal telling a former party MLA last year to poach six Congress legislators to form the government in the Capital.
The revelation that comes barely a month after the AAP won a historic mandate in Delhi is a massive setback for Kejriwal and his two-year-old party, which grew out of an anti-corruption campaign and struck a chord with millions of people over its clean image.
In the tape, the Delhi CM can be purportedly heard saying the AAP tried to poach the Congress legislators many times but didn’t succeeded, the latest in a string of embarrassments for the factionalism-ridden party.
“We are ready but these people (Congress MLAs) are not agreeing. Manish (Sisodia) has been in touch with them. We have tried many times. We shouldn’t say publically that we are seeking support. That will make us look desperate … Unless they agree, we shouldn’t say anything … Now you should work towards separating these six from the party. These six should leave and form their own party and give us support from outside,” Kejriwal is alleged to have said in the tape.
Former Rohini MLA Rajesh Garg said the telephonic conversation between him and Kejriwal was recorded in July, five months after the party moved the Supreme Court demanding fresh elections.
Minutes after the sensational sting hit the airwaves, the party’s senior Maharashtra leader Anjali Damania resigned over the controversy. “I quit… I have not come into AAP for this nonsense. I believed him… I backed Arvind for principles not horse-trading,” she tweeted, demanding a probe into the allegations within 48 hours.
Her resignation came as a major setback for the AAP in the state where she had become the face of party’s campaign against corruption. By evening, though, the activist – who exposed the Maharashtra irrigation scam – was learnt to have kept her resignation in abeyance.
The two-year-old outfit ran a very public campaign last year demanding fresh polls in Delhi after its 49-day-rule, holding rallies, meeting the President and the Lieutenant Governor and rejecting any rumour of backchannel negotiations. It even repeatedly accused the BJP of trying to poach its legislators.
The AAP, however, shielded Kejriwal, with party spokesperson Ashish Khetan saying realignment was a reality in politics. “Even if we assume the tape is authentic, where does it suggest monetary gains were offered by the AAP in exchange of support,” he asked.
The sting hit the party on a day over 50 MLAs reportedly wrote to Kejriwal demanding strict action against rebel leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. Two legislators — Bijwasan’s Devinder Sehrawat and Timarpur’s Pankaj Pushkar — however, didn’t sign the petition.
Yadav and Bhushan also backed the allegations, saying that Kejriwal and some sections of the party were trying to get Congress backing after receiving a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections.
This is not the first time recorded telephonic conversations have rocked the party. Last week, a recorded conversation between CM aide Bibhav and a journalist triggered charges of planting anti-Kejriwal stories in the media against Yadav, setting in motion the current AAP turmoil.
