In a big blow to the AAP on Wednesday, three councillors of the party joined the BJP, a day before election of one member to the MCD's Standing Committee even as several have already switched their loyalties.
AAP's Dilshad Colony Garden councillor Preeti, Green Park councillor Sarita Phogat and Madanpur Khadar East councillor Praveen Kumar joined the BJP in the presence of party's state president Virendra Sachdeva and Leader of Opposition in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Raja Iqbal Singh.
Delhi BJP has also claimed that AAP has lost majority amongst the elected councilors of MCD and thus has no more moral right to be in power. “MCD at present has an effective strength of 249 elected Councilors and AAP now has only 124 Councilors with it while majority mark is 125 hence it has clearly lost majority,” the Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor stated.
The election for filling up the lone vacancy of 18 member Standing Committee, the highest decision making body of the MCD, will be held on Thursday, which was created by the resignation of BJP councillor Kamaljeet Sehrawat after her election from the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat earlier this year.
The three councillors also took membership of the saffron party during an event at the Delhi BJP office here. Welcoming them, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said, “At this time there are a lot of problems in Delhi, there is a shortage of drinking water, sewers are overflowing, there are potholes on the roads everywhere but the new Chief Minister Atishi has been only playing with things for the last five days.”
“Today, the people of Delhi have completely understood the corruption of Kejriwal and his party and this is the reason that his own people have lost faith in him.
People are constantly leaving AAP and they now want to serve the people by joining the BJP which is constantly raising the voice of the people of Delhi,” he claimed.
Preeti said that she was a four-time councillor and has always remained among people trying to help in solving their problems related to civic issues. "I joined Kejriwal and his party believing they wanted to do something different but now I was forced to quit the AAP as a different atmosphere exists there and it became unbearable for me," she said.
The MCD councillor also slammed Chief Minister Atishi and the local MLA of her area, claiming nobody in the ruling party in Delhi listened if anyone raised grievances of people like drains and dirty water supply.
She claimed, “Atishi was the first woman who incited all of us to beat up BJP's corporators. Being a woman, if Atishi is talking about beating up other women, then it reflects her character.”
Councillor Praveen Kumar said that he is a councilor of a very backward ward where there are deep problems. “The Mayor or other party leaders do not listen to the councilors at all and today I have taken membership of BJP to raise and solve the problems of the public,” he stated.
