ANOTHER Punjab MLA Says Goodbye To AAP

DELHI’S Ruling   AAM Aadmi Party has suffered another jolt  after  rebel AAP MLA Baldev Singh has resigned from the party’s primary membership in Punjab. He has accused AAP leadership of “giving up its basic ideology and principles” and said Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal is “dictatorial and arrogant”. The AAP lawmaker from Jaitu tendered his resignation to Kejriwal. He is the second MLA to quit the party after Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, another AAP rebel who resigned on January 6. “I am pained to forward my resignation from the primary membership of the AAP because the party has completely given up its basic ideology and principles,” he said in a letter to Kejriwal.”As a result of your dictatorial, arrogant and autocratic style of functioning, pioneers of AAP had no other alternative but to quit AAP. Among them are Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Medha Patkar, Kiran Bedi, Dr. Gandhi, H S Khalsa, Sucha Singh Chhotepur, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Ashish Khetan, Ashutosh and senior advocate and activist H S Phoolka. They have been thrown out in a humiliating manner,” he alleged.“Therefore, keeping these saddening developments and circumstances in mind… I have decided to quit as a primary member of the AAP,” Baldev Singh said. It may be recalled that Baldev Singh, along with other MLAs, had sided with Khaira after he was removed as Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly last year by the AAP. He had even attended the launch ceremony of Khaira’s political outfit Punjabi Ekta Party.He said he was shocked that the AAP removed Khaira as LoP and gave the charge to Harpal Singh Cheema.“We in Punjab were deeply shocked when you unceremoniously and undemocratically removed honest Sukhpal Singh Khaira from the post of LOP without taking Punjab MLAs into confidence,” he said. He was also critical of Kejriwal for tendering an apology to Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia on the drug issue. “Your (Kejriwal) meek apology to tainted former minister Bikram Singh Majithia revealed your double standards in politics. Your duplicity on the vital issue of Punjab river waters also puts you on the same pedestal of cunning leaders of India,” he alleged. Baldev Singh denounced the AAP leadership for not “expressing faith” in leaders from Punjab. “Instead of expressing faith in the abilities of Punjabis and rewarding them you preferred to send an army of outsiders to muzzle the voice of our people. The said army was headed by two arrogant Subedar’s who indulged in every mean manoeuvres to promote their near and dear ones,” he alleged (with inputs from the Tribune)