"AAP Was Finished When...": Ex Leader Ashutosh's Post After Delhi Drubbing

Two days after AAP's poll drubbing in Delhi, its former leader Ashutosh said the party was "finished" long back and February 8 had just shown the results. He has warned that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party would struggle to hold on to Punjab as it has "lost the morality of revolution".

Mr Ashutosh, once a close aide of Mr Kejriwal, said in a post on X that AAP was "finished" when party leaders "started taking chartered flights, staying in presidential suits and building 'Sheesh Mahals' for themselves". The 'Sheesh Mahal' remark was aimed directly at Mr Kejriwal, who the BJP has accused of massive corruption in revamping the Chief Minister's residence during his term in office.

A veteran journalist, Mr Ashutosh was among the leaders of the India Against Corruption movement who later decided to float a political outfit. Mr Ashutosh contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but lost to BJP's Harsh Vardhan. He quit AAP in 2018, citing personal reasons.

In his post on X, he also flagged AAP leaders' enjoying Z+ security cover and intimidating mediapersons. He also pointed to the AAP's pre-poll allegations that Haryana has poisoned water coming to Delhi.

AAP, he said, suffered defeat because it lost its morality. "AAP became an election-fighting party. It stuck to the chair. AAP's asset was its morality. When that was lost, the government was lost too. It would be difficult to save Punjab too," he said.

After a decade-long rule in the national capital, AAP suffered a crushing defeat in this Delhi election. While the BJP scored 48 seats, AAP managed 22 -- 40 less than the 2020 election. What added to the damage was the defeat of AAP's top guns, including Mr Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain.

Earlier, AAP's now-expelled co-founder Prashant Bhushan held Mr Kejriwal responsible for the Delhi poll debacle. In a post on X, Mr Bhushan accused Mr Kejriwal of changing the nature of AAP after it was founded as a transparent platform for alternative politics.

Targeting Mr Kejriwal, he said, "He built a 45 cr sheesh mahal for himself & began travelling in luxury cars. He binned 33 detailed Policy reports of expert committees set up by AAP, saying that the party will adopt expedient policies when the time comes."

"He (Kejriwal) felt that politics could be done by bluster and propaganda. This is the beginning of the end of AAP," Mr Bhushan added.