FILE photo: Anjali Damania
As the Aam Aadmi Party grapples with a widening rift between top leaders, senior leader from Maharashtra Anjali Damania quit today citing allegations of horse-trading against party chief Arvind Kejriwal. AAP has rejected those allegations.
"I quit.. I have not come into Aap for this nonsense. I believed him.. I backed Arvind for principles not Horse-trading," Ms Damania tweeted, referring to a recording made public today of a purported telephone conversation between a former AAP legislator Rajesh Garg and a man who he alleges is Mr Kejriwal.
Mr Garg has alleged that the conversation is from August last year, before the Delhi assembly was dissolved and fresh elections were announced. The AAP and the BJP, both short of a majority, were at the time assessing whether they could form government.
On the audio recording, the two men discuss how to secure the support of six of the Congress' eight legislators then to form a majority AAP government in Delhi.
AAP's Ashish Khaitan questioned the authenticity of the recording, but also said that Congress lawmakers were in touch with his party then. "Even if we were to construe that the recording is genuine, horse-trading is a very strong term. We did not trade seats... political realignments are a reality and we need to accept that."
He called Rajesh Garg a "disgruntled element" and a man with an axe to grind because the party did not give him a ticket for the Delhi elections.
"The recording is completely authentic. I gave this recording to (AAP leader) Kumar Vishwas only. I am surprised how this CD reached every channel," Mr Garg has insisted.
In elections held in Delhi last month, the Aam Aadmi Party registered a landslide victory, winning 67 of Delhi's 70 seats. The BJP won three, the Congress won none.
But weeks after the win, AAP has been plunged into an internal crisis, with Mr Kejriwal's supporters seeking the ouster of founder members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who they accuse of attempting to unseat Mr Kejriwal as party chief and of having tried to ensure that AAP lost the Delhi elections.
Ms Damania had so far stood firmly by Mr Kejriwal in the rift with Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan.
Arvind Kejriwal is in Bengaluru on a 10-day break at a health farm for naturopathy treatment for diabetes. He returns to Delhi next Sunday.