Rift in AAP ahead of MC office-bearers’ election today

The conflict prevailing among the rank and file of the ruling AAP here has come out in the open. It has come to the fore at the time of election for the post of president and vice-president of the local Municipal Council. The election is to be held tomorrow (April 4, Friday). The election has a special significance as the ruling AAP is lagging behind in numbers in terms of getting a majority in the 25-member House. The AAP has just eight members. There are 14 independents and three members of the Congress party.

Soon after the election results were declared, MLA Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal managed to attract a few independent and a Congress party member to his side but his efforts received a major setback by a group of heavyweight leaders of his own party. The rival group of MLAs managed to get six independents and others to join AAP through state party president Aman Arora in a function organised at Chandigarh on Monday. The next day, on Tuesday, the MLAs met Aman Arora at Ludhiana with some 15 members claiming to have a majority in the 26–member (including the MLA himself ) House. These include eight independent candidates.

Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal, the local MLA, while talking to this correspondent on Wednesday, sharply criticised a minister and certain other leaders of AAP for their style of working. He described it as a move against his political future. The MLA said that he was of the view that the minister was supposed to work for the victory of the party candidates but he was doing otherwise.

It may be mentioned that Navjot Kaur Hundal, wife of the MLA, also had lost the election.

MLA Dr Sohal said that the minister and some other leaders of the AAP from outside played their role in the defeat of AAP candidates in the General Election and now they were working to create hurdles for the AAP in gaining control of the Municipal Council in Tarn Taran. The MLA said that the eight independent members who decided to extend their support to the candidate of his choice were putting pressure on them to shift their loyalty. He said he has instructed them to go to some undisclosed destination and come to attend the election meeting here only on Friday (tomorrow).

Meanwhile, Pargat Singh, Sarpanch of Gaggobua village and leader of the independent candidates, told this correspondent that they would extend their support to the candidate of Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal at the time of election of president and vice-president. Dr Sohal, in hard-hitting words, said he was not ready to permit any outsider in the working of his constituency and for the post of president and vice-president of MC, only a candidate of his choice would be elected as he has absolute majority. The MLA said that he will not allow AAP leaders from outside to interfere in the working of his constituency.

Amritsar