Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Punjab unit is in crisis. Two of its top leaders — the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Khaira and the state unit-co-president Dr Bablir Singh — are virtually training guns at each other.
Bholath MlA Khaira has gone up to the extent of claiming that it was “impossible” for him to continue working with Dr Balbir, accusing him of leveling “false” allegations against him of taking money from the party workers in lieu of party posts in Shutrana.
Visibly perturbed, Khaira went “live” on a social networking website, Facebook, giving vent to his ire against his party colleague. He even declared to complaint against Dr Balbir to the state party affairs in-charge and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, along with the entire party high command.
Past week, the political storm hit AAP’s state unit hard as 16 of its senior leaders, including six district presidents, tendered their resignations from the party posts in protest against Dr Balbir’s “arbitrary decisions”.
Party leaders, in a joint resignation letter addressed to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and state party affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia, had stated that Dr Balbir had taken several “wrong decisions” from the time he was appointed the state co-president due to which the party’s graph was plummeting in the state.
They demanded that AAP should be saved and workers should be listened to, and people like Dr Balbir should be removed from the party so that it is strengthened in Punjab.
Khaira had then called for a meeting with the party’s state president Bhagwant Mann to urge him to call a special meeting of AAP office-bearers to sort out the issue, and listen to the grievances of party leaders who have resigned.
At the same time, Khaira had rubbished reports that the resignations of 16 leaders, who owe allegiance to Khaira, were fallout of differences between him and Dr Balbir Singh.
Notably, AAP’s Punjab leadership is hit by sharp infighting between Khaira and Dr Balbir over the past month. Sharp differences between the two were witnessed during a press briefing where Khaira bitterly contradicted Dr Balbir on the controversy surrounding MlA’s statement on the issue of “Referendum 2020”.
In the immediate aftermath of Khaira’s statement on ‘Referendum 2020”, Dr Balbir had issued a statement saying that AAP did not support what Khaira had said and that an explanation will be sought from him on his statement.
Despite all the criticism and opposition, “unperturbed” Dr Balbir is going ahead with the new appointments of state office bearers, including district heads, and halka in-charges.