At least 1,000 BJP leaders in Himachal Pradesh set to join AAP: Sisodia
At least 1,000 local BJP leaders in Himachal Pradesh will join the AAP soon and several big guns in the poll-bound state are also in touch with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday.
Claiming that defections will leave the ruling party “scattered” in Himachal Pradesh, Sisodia asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will form its government winning assembly elections to be held later this year in the hill state.
Sisodia’s claims come a day after three BJP leaders, including national executive member of the saffron party’s Scheduled Caste Morcha Harmen Dhiman, joined the AAP along with their supporters.
“Dhiman ji has joined the party along with 20 other district level leaders. Now, 1,000 district and block leaders of the BJP are going to join the AAP as their hopes were shattered. They feel that the BJP is not going to do anything for the people of the state,” Sisodia said while addressing a press conference here.
They will join the AAP “in a few days,” the senior AAP leader said.
“Several big leaders of the BJP are also in touch with us. The BJP is completely scattered in the state now,” Sisodia said.
The AAP on Monday dissolved its Himachal Pradesh working committee, announcing that it will reorganise it soon following defection of the top functionaries of the party’s state unit and some other leaders to the BJP.
Last week, AAP’s Himachal Pradesh unit president Anup Kesari, general secretary (organisation) Satish Thakur and Una district chief Iqbal Singh had joined the BJP in the presence of its president J P Nadda and Union minister Anurag Thakur in the national capital.
The Union minister had taken a jibe at the AAP on Monday after few more AAP leaders, including women wing chief Mamata Thakur, joined the BJP, saying Kejriwal will find it difficult to save his party’s organisation in Himachal Pradesh.
Sisodia also said that the process is underway to reorganise the party’s working committee by bringing in dedicated leaders in the poll-bound state.
He asserted that the AAP has gained significant support base in Himachal Pradesh with leaders from the BJP and other parties joining it.
The BJP is so rattled with the “growing popularity” of the AAP that the saffron party has resorted to inducting those AAP leaders who were to be ousted from the party, Sisodia said.
“The people are looking towards the AAP with hopes. The AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab are doing good work, and we will do that in Himachal Pradesh as well, Sisodia said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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