In a major blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi has lost fifteen municipal councillors who quit and launched a new political party, the Indraprastha Vikas Party.
The new party will be led by Hemchand Goel, and features several top AAP members like Mukesh Goel, Himani Jain, Devindra Kumar, Rajesh Kumar Ladi, Suman Anil Rana, Dinesh Bhardwaj, Runakshi Sharma, Manisha, Sahib Kumar, Rakhi Yadav, Usha Sharma, and Ashok Pandey who have taken leading positions in the new political formation.
Mukesh Goel's resignation is particularly significant since he was also the Leader of the House in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in AAP.
Describing the reasons for the split, Goel stated, "We have floated Indraprastha Vikas Party because we could not conduct any public work in the last one year or two. The House never runs smoothly because of disruption," and also suggested that other councillors would be joining them.
Despite fighting the Delhi Assembly election on an AAP ticket earlier this year, Goel failed to get elected.
Although fifteen councillors are said to have quit, only thirteen names were officially listed, as two individuals were absent during the announcement and thus did not provide their signatures.
While addressing a media conference on Friday, a joint resignation letter by the councillors was presented stating, "We all Municipal Councilors were elected for the Delhi Municipal Corporation in the year 2022 on the Aam Aadmi Party ticket, but even after coming to power in the Delhi Municipal Corporation in the year 2022, the party's top leadership was not able to manage the Delhi Municipal Corporation smoothly."
They further accused the party's internal politics, stating, "The coordination between the top leadership and the Municipal Councillors was negligible, due to which the party came into the opposition."
Referencing their failure to fulfill promises given to the electorate, the letter concluded, "As we were not able to fulfil the promise made to the public, we, the councillors, are resigning from the primary membership of the party."
This wave of resignations contributes to the rising trouble for AAP in the MCD.
Earlier in February, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the municipal corporation after three AAP councillors—Anita Basoya (Andrews Ganj), Nikhil Chaprana (Hari Nagar), and Dharmveer Singh (RK Puram)—switched sides to join the BJP.
A parallel shift had taken place in September last year, when three other councillors defected from AAP to the BJP on the eve of a crucial vote for the MCD's standing committee.
During these defections, AAP recently decided to back out of the mayoral election due to take place on April 25, leaving the way effectively open for the BJP to gain control of the civic body.
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