By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 14 Jan: The Aam Aadmi Party has suffered yet another major jolt in Uttarakhand as many veteran leaders of the party have simultaneously bid goodbye to it and have resigned en masse from its primary membership.
Among those who have quit the party include its state convenor, Jot Singh Bisht, and RP Raturi, both of them former Congress leaders.
It may be recalled that, for the past few months, it had been speculated that many AAP leaders may leave the party as the central leadership has remained largely inactive in Uttarakhand. The Aam Aadmi Party, which had launched its state unit with much fanfare not very long ago but had lost very badly in the assembly elections, last year, has largely remained inactive following the crushing defeat, in which most of the party candidates had lost their security deposit. Though some senior Congress leaders had joined the AAP even after this, the state unit could not become active on state issues. Most of the political activity of the party leaders remained restricted to posting comments on social media platforms but nothing significant was seen on the ground. Even senior central leaders from AAP, nominated in charge of the party affairs in Uttarakhand, never bothered to visit the state, organise and expand the party. In fact, after the exit of Col Ajay Kothiyal (Retd) from the party, the national leadership could not even constitute a state executive committee.
Under the circumstances, it has been speculated for past few months that some senior party leaders were planning to quit the party and look for alternatives elsewhere. Finally, today, Party Convenor Jot Singh Bisht, senior party leaders RP Raturi, Kamlesh Raman, Himmat Singh Bisht and many others left the party. It is now expected that more leaders will be quitting the party soon.
Speaking about his resignation, Jot Singh Bisht said that the way Aam Aadmi Party has dissolved its organisation in Uttarakhand and the party has been inactive for a long time, there is a situation of all round confusion within. It did not appear that the national leadership of AAP is keen to improve the state of affairs in the Uttarakhand unit of the party. Bisht said that, under the given circumstances, it did not seem seem right to stay in the party any longer. The party leaders sitting in Delhi are wanting to control the party but doing nothing towards strengthening it in the state. They also continued to ignore the state party leaders.
Bisht further claimed that hundreds of the party members from across the state have decided to quit the party together. He, however, did not indicate any future course of action by those who have quit the party. He only claimed that the party leaders will soon take a call on their future political action.
It is believed that while some of the party leaders and workers may soon make efforts to rejoin the Congress, some may make join either the BJP or some other regional party, or form their own party. With Lok Sabha elections due to be held in the next few months, the exit of many big faces of the party is a major blow to the chances of AAP in the forthcoming contest.
