Top leaders of India’s Aam Aadmi Party quit

Founder members Shazia Ilmi and Captain GR Gopinath say they have been continuously ignored by party’s core leadership.

Shazia Ilmi says the party is run by "a crony clique" which also takes "impulsive decisions" [EPA]

A founder member of India’s anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has resigned from the party citing lack of “democracy” and “constructive criticism” behind her decision, according to reports.

The resignation of Shazia Ilmi has come at a time when the AAP performed badly in the just concluded national elections securing mere four seats in the 543-seated parliament and its chief Arvind Kejriwal is in jail in a defamation case.

“My decision to leave the party is triggered by the lack of inner-party democracy, especially from a party that talks of Swaraj (Self-governance),” Ilmi, who lost the parliamentary elections from a suburb of Delhi, said in a press statement.

Ilmi took a dig at party’s core leadership, saying the party is run by “a crony clique” who runs the party and takes “impulsive decisions”.

Another party leader Captain GR Gopinath, who founded Air Deccan and is considered a pioneer in India’s low-cost airline sector, also resigned from the party saying he feels “disappointed and disillusioned” with the party’s tactics. 

“I am now disappointed and disillusioned with their tactics, continuing tantrums and agitational ways. I wrote about it repeatedly when I felt they erred. I also praised them when they fought for the right cause,” he wrote in a blog.

Gopinath said his differing views were not appreciated and were not taken kindly by many in the party.

Kejriwal, whose jailed term was extended by a local court earlier on Saturday after refusing to furnish a bail bond in a defamation case, remains the principal figurehead of the AAP.

The new party stormed into Indian political scene after it won a surprise election to Delhi assembly last December. It formed a short-lived government under the leadership of Kejriwal with the help of the Congress party.

But Kejriwal left the government after 49 days in power, following his government’s failure to push through an anti-corruption legislation.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies