Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in Maharashtra Anjali Damania on Wednesday resigned from the party after a television channel aired a sting tape of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal allegedly trying to buy out Congress MLAs.
“I quit..I have not come into Aap for this nonsense (sic),” tweeted Damania soon after India TV ran a story on an audio sting by former AAP legislator Rajesh Garg in which it was alleged that the party was planning to poach Congress MLAs.
Damania made her unhappiness with party’s national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal known. “I believed him…I backed Arvind for principles not horse-trading,” she said on her Twitter account@anjali_damania on Wednesday.
Damania’s resignation comes as a major setback for the party, especially in Maharashtra where she had become the face of party’s campaign against corruption. A housewife-turned-activist, Damania exposed the irrigation scam in Maharashtra and also filed petitions against politicians in irrigation and Maharashtra Sadan scams.
Damania’s exit came after a stormy morning as the exit of Yadav and Bhushan seemed imminent, a day after senior AAP leaders close to Kejriwal accused the rebel leaders of conspiring against the party before the Delhi polls.
The letter will be submitted to Kejriwal after he is back from Bengaluru, where he currently undergoing treatment. The speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly, besides Kejriwal’s seven-member cabinet are not part of the signature campaign.
The party has 67 MLAs in the 70-member house. HT couldn’t independently verify the number of MLAs who had signed the letter.
Yadav had hit back at the party on Tuesday, alleging lawmakers in Delhi were being forced to sign a letter against him and Bhushan. “Hope there is no more coercion of party functionaries and Delhi MLAs on the issue. Truth shall prevail,” he said.
The rookie party, however, distanced itself from the campaign. "It was purely an initiative of MLAs led by Kapil Mishra (Karawal Nagar), Praveen Kumar (Jungpura), and Sanjeev Jha (Burari)," said a party leader.
The party came to power in Delhi on the back of a crushing majority less than a month ago but has been struggling to paper over the cracks after a series of leaked letters revealed two camps, one supporting Kejriwal and the other comprising veterans like Yadav and Bhushan who say the chief minister is dictatorial.
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