50 AAP members switch loyalty to JD(U): Jha

At least 50 AAP members hailing from the Purvanchal region, including some senior leaders, have switched allegiance to JD(U) and more will follow suit, party national general secretary Sanjay Jha claimed today.
Sources said these members from the Arvind Kejriwal-led party were "feeling unhappy" with the ticket distribution for the high-stakes MCD polls due in April.
"People in the city, hailing from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are feeling shortchanged by the party (AAP). It won the elections enjoying a major support from this huge vote-bank but
over time, the Kejriwal-led party has not done what it had promised to them.

"So, people have shifted loyalty to Nitish Kumar," he told reporters at a press conference at the party headquarters here.
Independent councillor Jeevan Lal from Harkesh Nagar seat in south Delhi also joined the Nitish Kumar-led party in the presence of Jha and other senior party leaders.

The senior JD(U) leader, who is also the in-charge of the party's Delhi unit, further claimed that more AAP supporters would soon join the party. JD(U) has till date released the names of 40 candidates.
"About 50 members from the AAP Purvanchali Shakti (Purvanchal wing of AAP) have joined us, including its secretary Vinod Jha. About 300-350 more members are in the pipeline to join us," Jha claimed.

At the press conference, a woman candidate from the JD(U), hailing from Bihar, who has been fielded by the party from a ward in south Delhi, alleged that some unidentified people "threatened" her to "withdraw her candidature" from the polls.
"Some men came to our home on Sunday night and threatened our family that I should withdraw the candidature. We filed a police complaint the next day," she claimed.
Purvanchalis or people hailing from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and settled in Delhi are considered a major vote-bank by all parties, and JD(U) is also hoping to shore up its fortunes in the civic polls relying on the impact of Nitish Kumar's policies in Bihar, especially prohibition.

"AAP will suffer a bigger setback in MCD polls than it did in Goa or Punjab. And, people have now warmed up to JD(U) because of the good governance model of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar," Jha said.
"Most people in Delhi are also fed up with the sale of liquor in the city. Prohibition has been implemented in Bihar strictly and voters in Delhi, especially women are going to be major constituent of the electorate that we are going to reach out to," he said.
A section of AAP leaders are also believed to have joined the Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj India party, sources in AAP indicated.

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A senior AAP leader when asked about his response on Jha's claim, only said, "nothing worth commenting."
"I can only say that this will not be able to make any dent in the elections," he said.