New Delhi, January 7: Punjab MLA Sukhpal Khaira has resigned from the primary membership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), news agency.
In a letter to party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Khaira said the AAP “has totally deviated from the ideology and principles on which it was formed post the Anna Hazare movement”.
Khaira was suspended in November last year for indulging in “anti-party” activities and continuously attacked the central and state party leadership.
Reacting to his suspension from AAP, Khaira had described the decision as “dictatorial”. “We will go to the people’s court. Unity talks were torpedoed under a conspiracy after announcing five Lok Sabha candidates. It seems it is a planned strategy and conspiracy,” Khaira said. The suspension came nearly three months after Khaira was removed from the post of Leader of Opposition.
Khaira, the suspended AAP MLA, and his faction — the Bains brothers of Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi and BSP state president Rashpal Raju — recently announced the formation of the Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA), a political front which they described as a tool for taking on the SAD-BJP alliance and the Congress in the state.
The legislator had said the Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) was a political formation of “like-minded leaders” that aimed at cleaning the “corrupt politics” of Punjab. Khaira said the alliance would aim to “liberate” Punjab from the clutches of “corrupt traditional parties” and “the feudal families of CM Amarinder Singh and his predecessor, Parkash Singh Badal”.
Khaira was leading a group of eight dissident legislators who had revolted against the party after he was removed from the post of the Leader of Opposition in July. The rebel group had been seeking autonomy for the state unit, which they said was being controlled by the Delhi leadership.
His group had blamed the defunct organisational structure for the party’s defeat in Gurdaspur Lok Sabha byeletion, Shahkot assembly byelection and zila parishad polls.
Source News18.com
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