Delhi AAP MLA resigns, joins BJP ahead of civic polls

AAP legislator Ved Prakash resigned from the party as well as assembly membership and joined the BJP on Monday, ahead of the April 23 elections to the three municipal corporations here.

Ved Prakash, the MLA from Bawana, claimed there was no democracy in the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of not fulfilling the promises he made before sweeping the 2015 assembly elections.

"I am resigning from the AAP as it has failed to deliver on its promises made during the 2015 assembly elections. People are feeling cheated," Prakash said.

Prakash announced his decision to join the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party at a press conference here, also attended by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.

Later in the day, Prakash resigned from the assembly membership.

The AAP said the BJP was conspiring to break the ruling party by "purchasing" AAP MLAs.

Voting for the 272 wards of north, east and south Delhi municipal corporations will be held on April 23 and the results declared on April 26.

Prakash said he was feeling "suffocated" in the AAP.

"The government has failed on corruption front. Several government departments are still loaded with corruption," he said.

Prakash claimed that 30-35 MLAs in the AAP were not happy with the party leadership.

"This party has no connect with the people on the ground. They do not know what is happening at the ground level," he claimed.

Reacting to the development, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the BJP was rattled by Kejriwal's decision to abolish house tax in Delhi if voted to power in the three municipal corporations.

"Positive reactions are coming after this announcement, which rattled the BJP and it then resorted to political machinations that are not going to work," Sanjay Singh said.

He alleged that the BJP was conspiring to break his party by purchasing MLAs because it feared losing the civic body polls.

"The BJP is going to lose the MCD elections; that is why they have resorted to such party-breaking politics."

"You all know the results whenever efforts were made to purchase our MLAs. We got 67 of the 70 assembly seats when attempts to break our party were made by the BJP ahead of the 2015 assembly elections," he said.

Sanjay Singh also denied reports of a few more AAP MLAs leaving the party.

Welcoming Prakash into the BJP, the party's Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari said many Aam Aadmi Party MLAs and workers were not happy with its leadership.

"The AAP and its government is only working for Kejriwal's political ascendancy due to which developmental works in Delhi have come to a standstill; and there is frustration among public representatives," Tiwari said in a statement.

--IANS

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