Patkar quits AAP, doubts future of 'alternative politics'

Anti-Narmada dam activist Medha Patkar quit the AAP on Saturday following dissident leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan's expulsion from the party's National Executive.

She expressed serious doubts over what she termed the "future of alternative politics" in the country.

Announcing her decision at a hurriedly convened press conference here, Patkar expressed pain over the development and said: "Whatever happened in AAP meeting is inappropriate and I condemn it."

She said the violence and other happenings show disrespect to the party's senior leaders and did not augur well for the party and so she has decided to quit.

Defending her two senior colleagues, she said Yadav had been at the forefront of the Haryana farmers movement, while Bhushan was a guide and senior mentor not only to the anti-Narmada Dam agitation but also other public movements and never charged a penny.

Patkar expressed unhappiness with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's style of functioning which, she indicated, has resulted in the major crisis in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

"With all this happening and today's climax, I think nothing much can be expected from this (AAP) party in terms of the vision of alternative politics of ours, so I have decided to quit," Patkar declared.

Patkar expressed her best wishes to the AAP government for the Delhi masses and voters and hoped that the party would carry out the tasks it had committed itself to in its manifesto.

"We wish to appeal to the conscience of all AAP volunteers and supporters of AAP that this is the time to think of what is the future of alternative politics. I myself feel very strongly that alternative politics must be pursued through the peoples' movement," she said.

Besides Patkar, several groups and activists of the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements, who have worked together along with another prominent leader Anna Hazare from Maharashtra, are expected to follow suit.

On March 5, senior AAP leader Mayank Gandhi had unfurled the banner of revolt by revealing AAP internal meetings and later claimed he was being targeted.