In a setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), senior leader and former MLA Rajesh Gupta joined the BJP Monday ahead of Sunday’s MCD bypolls for 12 wards.
Gupta, a two-time MLA from Wazirpur, joined the party on Saturday in the presence of Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva.
A teary-eyed Gupta said he has contributed a lot to the AAP for over a decade but in return he received only “mockery”. “When AAP was founded, many prominent individuals enthusiastically joined hands with (AAP chief) Arvind Kejriwal. But Kejriwal betrayed everyone, and one by one, they all chose to leave him,” alleged Gupta. “Today, unfortunately, I have also joined that list.
Gupta is a two-time MLA from Wazirpur.
He also claimed that in the Ashok Vihar MCD ward, the AAP gave a ticket to a person who had been issued a notice by the party earlier. And when he raised the issue, he alleged no one was willing to listen.
“… Despite my years of sincerity, honesty and loyalty, when I raised concerns, the party president wasn’t even ready to talk to me — this, when the party was neither in power in the Delhi government nor in the MCD. Treating workers as ‘use and throw’ is the biggest reason behind Arvind Kejriwal and AAP’s decline,” he alleged.
Responding to Gupta’s exit, AAP state unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Rajesh Gupta is our brother. The party fielded him as MLA four times. This time, he could not win the Assembly election… Gupta demanded a councillor ticket for his wife… when the party could not accommodate him, he left AAP and joined the BJP.”
“The AAP and our leader Arvind Kejriwal have decided that the party will field its karyakartas. Many candidates with very big public profiles came with promises of assured wins, but the party’s position was very clear. We will field only our workers,” he added.
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Bharadwaj further added that Gupta reacted by fielding an independent candidate in Ashok Vihar ward and also shared internal party matters with another organisation. “… We extend our best wishes to Rajesh Gupta. We hope wherever he stays he remains happy, progresses in life…,” he said.
Sachdeva, meanwhile, said Gupta had created a distinct identity for himself as a responsible MLA, but Kejriwal failed to value that identity.
He also claimed that AAP has pushed Delhi into such a situation over the last 12 years that its burden has now fallen upon the new government as well. “The shortcomings AAP leaders are listing today are all outcomes of their own 12-year tenure, yet they are questioning a government that has been in office for only eight months. Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia missing entirely, Atishi and Gopal Rai are merely making special appearances for Delhi. Just as Aurangzeb plundered Delhi… after looting and indulging in corruption, AAP leaders are now comfortably settled in Punjab,” Sachdeva alleged.
