Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today witnessed a bitter face-off with its cadre here as some of them raised slogans against the party leadership for its decision-making in the run-up to the announcement of candidates' list in the state.
The party's national campaigning committee members, Pankaj Gupta and Ajit Jha, were in the city today to vet the probables for both the Telangana and Seemandhra regions. However, few disgruntled AAP city-based workers went awry when the national committee members were speaking to mediapersons.
Ramesh Reddy, a senior AAP worker from the city, who claims to have a clean image, said the party was going against the interests of workers associated with it in the city during the initial days in 2013.
"We have spent huge amounts in mobilising supporter base for the party here, spanning across various communities. Now, we see some new faces getting the upper hand in the list of probables," Reddy said.The state election committee has to be dissolved immediately and a fresh one should be constituted, he added. He said they would meet the national committee members later in the day. Against all this, Pankaj Gupta said the candidates list for Telangana and Seemandhra would be out in the next two days.
Chinta Swamy, the party's campaigning committee member, said the list in Telangana would figure many IAS officers, prominent Muslim faces, beedi workers and young professionals.
In the state, AAP is expected to contest from 60-70 Assembly seats and 10-12 Lok Sabha seats, as against the earlier anticipated 294 Assembly seats. "Many enthusiastic applicants have failed to meet the standards set by the party and hence we have reduced the list," said R Venkat Reddy, convenor of Telangana Campaign Team.
The party today conducted a state-level convention for volunteers, in which around 12,000 individuals participated.
