With several people from other parties joining the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), senior leaders of the party said that they have devised a six-stage screening process to ensure that anyone coming into the party is not facing criminal and corruption charges. According to the party, it will welcome people with clean image from other parties with open arms, even though they had once worked against the AAP’s ideology.
National secretary of the party Pankaj Gupta said that the people who are switching loyalty to AAP are those who joined those parties with a certain ideology but got disappointed. “They have now found an outlet in the AAP. However, we make sure that these people are well-screened so that later on no question is raised,” said Gupta.
First the party will do verification. For this party will send a secret team collect feedback about the person concerned from the grass roots. “The team goes and speaks to people at random in and around the area where the person has significant influence. After analysing public perception of the person and his antecedent, the team will send its recommendation to Delhi Election Campaign Committee of the party headed by party convener Arvind Kejriwal,” said a party leader.
The committee will evaluate the recommendation further and take a final call on allowing the person to join the party.The leader said, “The committee meets the people and goes into the background of the person’s family and his motive to join the party. After this whatever complaints come forward, the internal assessment team looks at them and then decides whether the person is eligible to be a member or not.”
Sources said that most of the people who join AAP from other parties are suggested by volunteers of the party. “Volunteers suggest the names and then this entire process takes place. Other than this there are a lot of background checks also which take place. Political reputation is an important factor for selection,” said the source.
Recently forcer chairman of South Delhi Municipal Corporation standing committee and BJP Councilor from Chattarpur Kartar Singh Tanwar, along with six other leaders from BJP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress joined the party. Before that several members of BSP joined AAP as well.