Increasing differences with leadership led Gopinath to quit AAP

Increasing differences with the AAP leadership including the party's national convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal led India's low-cost aviation pioneer G.R. Gopinath to resign from the party Saturday.

"Gopinath resigned from the party. He sent a mail to national executive member Prithvi Reddy who forwarded it to Karnataka convenor Siddharth Sharma. It will be considered by the party executive," an AAP spokesman told IANS here.

Gopinath, however, was not available to explain the reasons for quitting the party within five months after joining, as he is in France on a business trip.

In the e-mail to Reddy, a copy of which is available with IANS, Gopinath said he would like to resign from the AAP membership with immediate effect because of increasing difference with the party leadership and its ways.

"I have expressed most of my views also in the media. I wish the party well in its future endeavours," the former Air Deccan founder said in the mail.

Gopinath's resignation came within hours after party member Shazia Ilmi quit on the grounds that there was no democracy within the party, which was being run by a coterie that takes impulsive decisions without consulting other members.

The resignations come within days of Kejriwal being sent to judicial custody for refusing to seek bail in a defamation case.

Gopinath also disagreed with Kejriwal on refusing to furnish a bail bond in the defamation case filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari.

However, the AAP spokesman said: "There is no impact on Gopinath quitting as he was only a member and did not hold any post in the party. We have no comments to make on his resignation."

In a blog on how "Kejriwal lost his way" earlier in the day, Gopinath criticised his functioning and the way he was leading the party, as was evident from the rout in the Lok Sabha election.

"When Kejriwal took on Robert Vadra (son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi) on corruption charges, BJP loved it and went for the kill against Congress and then he took on Gadkari," Gopinath said.

"Kejriwal was brazen and broke that rule. He went for the jugular. What was rumoured in whispers, he stood up to in public, which made him the darling of the people and the media... Kejriwal did not stop there. He made allegations against other high and mighty of the land," Gopinath said in his blog.

In a related development, AAP state unit treasurer K.N. Chandrakant also resigned from the post as he was "not happy with the activities going on in the party".