Sucha Singh Chhotepur’s removal as AAP’s Punjab convener has turned into a rallying point for those who are upset with the manner in which tickets have been announced for the January 2017 assembly elections.
Advertisement
Noteworthy, the party’s six zone in-charges are backing Chhotepur, according to a report in TOI.
Meanwhile, a rebel group of AAP led by Manjit Singh Randhawa on Saturday extended support to Chhotepur and accused Kejriwal of indulging in dictatorial behaviour.
Elaborating his plans to turn Amritsar into a hub of Tourism, Sukhbir said that the beautification of area around Golden Temple, besides the current beautification of Shri Durgiana Mandir and the focus on Rs 250 crore project of giving facelift to the Gobindgarh Fort, would further strengthen Amritsar’s status amongst the tourist destinations. And perhaps, Chhotepur forget that in “political army” too, the Commander is the Boss and in his case was Kejriwal. The Patiala MP has not resigned from the party nor has he been expelled as that will mean AAP is losing an LS seat.
On Punjab government’s decision to distribute utensils to the poor, AAP’s Punjab MP Bhagwant Mann said how come Akali Dal has now realised to do so.
The deputy chief minister, in a letter to Singh, had requested him to launch an immediate investigation into the “huge amount of money” being received by AAP from “radical elements residing in North America, Europe and Australia”.
Sources said Kejriwal fell out with Chhotepur mainly over the selection of candidates for Punjab. He said the results were “encouraging” as the vote bank of AAP was committed.
Either Arivind Kejriwal has not been briefed about the background of Chhotepur by the senior party leaders or in-depth and minute study of events in the past about Chhotepur has not been done, putting the AAP in a very awkward situation. The wrangle in its ranks has given rivals an opportunity to attack AAP.
On the purported sting operation against him, Chhotepur said it was a “conspiracy” hatched by “my own friends within the party”. He had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election as an AAP candidate from Gurdaspur losing to the BJP’s Vinod Khanna.
Advertisement
Sukhbir had recently requested Rajnath to initiate a probe into the funding of AAP allegedly by “extremist elements abroad” which aims to destabilise the state ahead of assembly elections next year.
