CHANDIGARH: Is Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab heading for a split? As it is in fresh turmoil in the state, a day after of the Lead opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira was removed from the post of LoP by the national leadership of AAP today out of a total of twenty legislators of AAP nine party MLAs came in his favour seeking review to remove him from the post.
Khaira is not known to take things lying down. Sources said that ten party MLAs held a one-hour long meeting today at his residence which included MLA Kanwar Sandhu and asked the party high command to review the decision to remove Khaira from the post of leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly.
Khaira also announced to hold state-level worker convention in Bathinda on August 2. The choice of venue is interesting as Bathinda is part of the Malwa heartland that sent maximum AAP MLAs to the assembly. Flanked by the MLAs, Khaira called the party's decision arbitrary that had to be revoked.
Sandhu said Khaira's removal was announced on Twitter without any intimation to Khaira. He said eight lawmakers have sent a signed letter to party head Arvind Kejriwal asking him to resolve the crisis. He also claimed many state office bearers and zonal leaders have sent their resignations, but none has been accepted so far.
Sandhu has resigned from the post of the spokesperson of the AAP Legislative Party of Punjab. Meanwhile, both Kharia and Sandhu said, "Will express resentment but will not leave the party.''
Those who attended the meeting were Bhadaur MLA Pirmal Singh, Mansa MLA Nazer Singh Mansahia, Maur MLA Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Raikot MLA Jagtar Singh besides others. It is learnt that yesterday, out of the 20 MLAs, 15 had signed consent for replacing Khaira with Harpal Singh Cheema and one among them, Pirmal Singh was at Khaira's house for the meeting today.
Later Bathinda city's MLA Rupinder Kaur Ruby joined them. However, a party legislator on condition of anonymity said that efforts were also on to diffuse the situation by convincing Khaira to avoid further confrontation with the state and national unity.
Earlier as he had been raising the voice of the AAP on all major issues in the state in the past more than a year and he had the support of 14 out of 20 party MLAs and one-time alliance partner Lok Insaaf Party (LIP).
Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday removed Sukhpal Singh Khaira as the Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly and announced Dirba MLA Harpal Singh Cheema would take his place. The Punjab leaders have been demanding functional autonomy while the Delhi leadership wanted them to show results. Already two of the four MPs of AAP continue to be under suspension.