'Many volunteers desert AAP to join Swaraj Abhiyan'

Published on:

22 Jun 2015, 12:00 am

Coming as a jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party, a large number of volunteers have shifted their allegiance to their newly-formed social movement Swaraj Abhiyan in the past two months.“A huge chunk of disgruntled AAP volunteers have joined Swaraj Abhiyan in the last two months. Swaraj Samvad has received a much better response than expected,” said a member of National Working Committee of Swaraj Abhiyan.“The drive for volunteers to join the AAP initially was idealism, which vanished from the party with time. There was no hope or reason for the volunteers to continue with the party,” he added.

Om Prakash, an ex-AAP volunteer, who joined the party during its inception and was also associated with the India Against Corruption campaign, has now joined Swaraj Abhiyan. “I have campaigned for both 2013 and 2015 elections. When the party was formed, the focus was Swaraj. But only 5 per cent of it was implemented, moreover there was no transparency or democracy within the party. When AAP attained 28 seats in December 2013 elections, the focus instantly shifted to politics, power and game of thrones,” he said.

“I left Aam Aadmi Party, the day Prashant Bhushan and YogendraYadav were thrown out of National Executive. All principles have been compromised from the party,” he added.Another former volunteer of AAP Shwetank Mishra, who was Jarnail Singh’s coordinator during 2015 Assembly elections, said, “We wanted to bring a change in the society. But what we saw in the party after the election was hunger for power. The party high command is responsible for tarnishing the image of the party.”Asna Nausheen, who worked closely with AAP since party’s inception, has recently joined Swaraj Abhiyan. “There is no place for volunteers in AAP. They work day and night before elections, and when they demand something after elections no one pays heed. There is more hypocrisy and cheating in the AAP than any other party,” she said.

Members of Swaraj Abhiyan claimed that around 200 volunteers joined in the North East during the samvads and on an average 1,500 volunteers have joined the samvad.However denying the claim that AAP’s young loyalist are moving towards Swaraj Abhiyan, AAP youth wing president Ankush Narang said, “AAP’s youth leaders are dedicated and with the party. There are no reports of them moving out or change their allegiance.” A large part of Swaraj Abhiyan’s volunteer base is expected to join the Kisan Andolan scheduled to begin on June 13. “The volunteers will therefore go and interact with the farmers in each and every house so as to understand the ground issues,” said the member of NWC of Swaraj Abhiyan.