Two senior leaders of Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab unit quit the party yesterday and joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) after criticizing their senior leadership and party president Arvind Kejriwal for failing to live up to expectations.
AAP’s Jalandhar district president and 2017 assembly elections candidate HS Walia left the party and joined SAD in the presence of senior leader Sukhbir Singh Badal yesterday because he realized that the party had become “extremely corrupt” and was not concerned about the problems that Punjabis are facing.
Walia said he had joined AAP because of its idealistic principles, but he had to quit because it failed to live up to his expectations. He even attacked Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal without naming him, saying that AAP is being run by a “dictator” from Delhi.
AAP’s second jolt occurred later in the day when its senior party leader from Shahkot constituency, Col. C.D. Kamboj, quit the party as it had failed to emerge as an alternative to SAD. He is a senior politician who has previously held important positions in Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress as well.
These defections from AAP to SAD by the two senior leaders have occurred barely a week before Shahkot constituency by-elections scheduled for May 28.