Kejriwal, Sisodia ‘missing', disquiet grows in Delhi AAP: ‘Abandoned by leadership'

Indian Express

19-05-2025

THE defection of the 13 rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), who announced the formation of their breakaway outfit Saturday, has brought the growing fissures within the Delhi AAP to light.
With this exodus, the AAP's strength in the 250-member MCD, a key body that oversees civic projects in Delhi, has plunged to 100. In contrast, the BJP's tally now stands at 117.
In the MCD polls held in December 2022, the AAP had clinched a majority, securing 134 seats as against the BJP's 104. The Congress had won nine seats, while the remaining ones were picked by the Independents.
With the anti-defection law not applicable to the MCD, the defection of the councillors cannot be challenged, thereby spelling further trouble for the AAP which lost power in Delhi in the February 2025 Assembly polls after a decade-long rule.
The 13 AAP councillors' revolt came ahead of the MCD's zonal ward committee elections for the posts of the Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons. This is a crucial process that includes voting to fill two seats on the MCD Standing Committee, an 18-member body that holds significant financial power as it oversees all civic projects exceeding Rs 5 crore.
Due to a tug of war between the AAP and the BJP, the Standing Committee has remained non-functional since the MCD elections in December 2022, leaving many crucial aspects of civic governance in limbo.
Several AAP councillors told The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity that party supremo and ex-Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's 'limited public appearances and interaction with AAP rank and file' in the wake of the party's Assembly poll defeat at the hands of the BJP has left the AAP workers 'demoralised'.
Kejriwal has since spoken to the AAP workers only twice: on Shahidi Diwas and Dr BR Ambedkar's birth anniversary.
An AAP councillor said the defection of his colleagues was not a 'surprise'. 'We saw this coming… There has not been a single post-election dialogue held by the party leadership with the Delhi councillors for months… We are fighting daily battles at the municipal level without any direction from the top,' the councillor said.
Senior AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and ex-minister Satyendar Jain, have been currently focusing on Punjab, the lone state where the party now rules, frequently camping there. While Sisodia is the AAP in-charge of Punjab, Jain is his deputy in the state.
This leaves a leadership vacuum in Delhi, where the party's morale and control have seen a steady erosion. Several AAP activists admitted to feeling 'abandoned' by the leadership.
Led by Moralband councillor Hemanchand Goyal, the rebel group submitted a signed statement to the MCD Saturday, citing 'disillusionment with the AAP's leadership and the breakdown of internal coordination' as primary reasons for their move.
The most notable defection is that of Mukesh Goel, the AAP's former leader of the MCD. A former Congress leader who joined the AAP ahead of the 2022 MCD polls, Goel was seen as one of the party's key faces in the municipal body.
'We were elected on the AAP's ticket in 2022, but since then, the top leadership failed to maintain any coordination with us. The promises made to the public remained unfulfilled. We felt we were being used only for optics,' said the joint letter submitted by the councillors.
The defectors, who have now formed a new outfit, called the Indraprastha Vikas Party (IVP), include councillors from Bankner, Vasant Vihar, Sadar Bazar, Vikas Puri and Mayur Vihar, among others. They say the IVP will operate as an independent front and will be restricted at the MCD level, positioning itself as a 'strong and constructive opposition.'
The AAP has accused the BJP of allegedly engineering defections through financial inducements.
'Each councillor was offered Rs 5 crore,' the AAP alleged, adding that the BJP was trying to gain 'backdoor control' of the MCD ahead of the crucial Standing Committee and ward committee elections.
The BJP's MCD Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh, however, dismissed these allegations. 'AAP's internal chaos, not BJP, is the reason behind this breakaway. They failed to even maintain basic sanitation during their tenure. This is a result of their own misgovernance,' he said.
Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav also took a swipe at the AAP, calling the defection 'a reflection of the party's decaying leadership structure under Kejriwal'.