The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got a shot in the arm after corporators from BJP, BSP and JD(U) joined the party. BJP corporator Ravindra Shaukeen, a corporator from (ward no. 44) and block president Arun Kumar Singh, both from Kamruddin Nagar from Nangloi Jat Assembly seat, on Friday joined the party. Shaukeen, who was an Independent in 2007, had joined the BJP party in 2012.
“The party took some wrong decision and I was disillusioned due to this. We were unhappy with the BJP. This is why we have decided to join the AAP,” said Shaukeen, who joined the party along with his followers. JD(U) corporator Rakesh Kumar from ward no. 82, which falls in Matia Mahal Assembly seat also joined the party and Imran Hussain, BSP corporator from ward no. 86 that falls under Ballimaran constituency, also joined AAP. Hussain had contested Delhi Assembly elections on a BSP ticket from the Matia Mahal and had secured around 16,000 votes. Interestingly, two of the seats — Matia Mahal and Ballimaran — fall under the Chandni Chowk constituency.
“Their (Kumar and Hussain) joining will certainly help the party and has brightened our prospects. I am confident that (sitting MP and Congress leader) Kapil Sibal will lose his deposit this time,” said Ashutosh, party’s candidate from Chandni Chowk parliamentary seat. Meanwhile, the AAP on Friday alleged that political patronage from Congress, BJP’s Narendra Modi and Samajwadi Party was paving the way for re-entry of Ketan Desai into Medical Council of India. “Ideological differences have been set aside to bring back Desai, despite the ongoing criminal cases pending against him,” said senior lawyer and AAP leader Prashant Bhushan.