labour Minister Gopal Rai has been appointed as Convener of Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi Unit after Dilip Pandey submitted his resignation to National Convener Arvind Kejriwal owing moral responsibility for the loss in the municipal elections. AAP failed to breach the citadel of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the saffron party registered a spectacular hat-trick and retained all the three corporations.
However, the formal announcement will be made after the meeting of party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the AAP’s highest decision-making body.
The decision to appoint Rai was taken at a meeting of Delhi AAP MlAs called by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his official residence to review the civic bodies polls result. “labour Minister Gopal Rai has been appointed as the new convener of Delhi AAP. The formal decision will be announce after the PAC meeting,” an AAP functionary said.
In the meeting, Kejriwal also asked the MlAs to go back to people and introspect the reasons behind the poll debacle.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, AAP legislator Vishesh Ravi said, “In the meeting, it was decided that MlAs will go back to people and try to find out where has been a communication gap between the legislators and them”.
Ravi, the MlA from Karol Bagh, said that in the meeting with Kejriwal, the EVM manipulation issue also came up.
“The AAP will soon decide its future course of action on this issue. At present, related evidence (pertaining to EVM manipulation) is being gathered,” Ravi said.
Another AAP MlA Nitin Tyagi said that in the meeting, it was discussed that MlAs should introspect on what went wrong in the MCD elections.
Asked about who will be the next party’s Delhi convener, Tyagi also said Rai may be appointed to the post.
“We need to work at the ground level in our constituencies and also introspect on what went wrong in MCD polls. I think there has been a communication gap between MlAs and people. We could not convince the people about the good work done by the Delhi government.
“I think people also forgot how the BJP in the MCD had failed for the last 10 years,” Tyagi, the MlA from laxmi Nagar, said.
Another AAP lawmaker, who did not wish to be named, said that Kejriwal has asked all party legislators to not be upset with the MCD poll results and go back to people.