NEW DELHI: Moments before elections of Standing Committee members, AAP councillor Pawan Sehrawat from Bawana ward joined BJP on Friday. After joining the saffron party, Sehrawat alleged that he was being pressured to create a ruckus in the house proceedings. He said that AAP’s politics was suffocating him due to which he decided to switch the party.
Sehrawat alleged that he was distressed as the AAP councillors were instructed to create a ruckus in the MCD House meeting. Welcoming Sehrawat, BJP state president Virendra Sachdeva said that AAP leaders are upset with Arvind Kejriwal’s dictatorial attitude and corruption. He said that with Sehrawat joining the party, BJP family will get more strength in the rural areas of the city.
BJP leader Harsh Malhotra said that ever since the talk of forming the corporation is going on, AAP leaders have been adopting dictatorial and anarchic attitude. Not letting the house function is proof of their stubbornness. He said that AAP is afraid of cross-voting and that is the reason why they are not allowing the standing committee elections to be held.
Malhotra said there was “dissent” among AAP cocouncillors and that is the reason they were instructed to carry mobile phones while voting for standing committee members to check cross-voting. Sehrawat said that he worked with AAP for a long time but was feeling suffocated due to party’s corruption, leading him to quit the party. He said that the top leadership of AAP had instructed its councillors to keep creating ruckus in the House so that the standing committee election could be stalled and that is the reason why bottles and chairs were hurled in the house.
A fight broke out in the MCD House as BJP and AAP members kicked, punched and pushed one another amid shouting after Mayor Shelly Oberoi declared one vote invalid in the election to a key six-member municipal committee on Friday. The ruckus forced adjournment of the MCD House proceedings till February 27.