CHANDIGARH: In a big jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Himachal Pradesh Unit president of the party Anup Kesari and two other party leaders organization secretary Satish Thakur and Una district president Iqbal Singh joined BJP ahead of upcoming state assembly elections as they were disappointment with Delhi Chief Minister and National Convenor of AAP Arvind Kejriwal as they accused him of overlooking them during the recent road show in Mandi and also being ignorant on the issue.
Sources said that Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur had yesterday late night organised a meeting with these AAP leaders at the residence of BJP national president JP Nadda in Delhi, where they were inducted into the saffron party.
After joining the saffron party Kesari said that for last eight years they had have been working round the clock, day and night for the party with upmost dedication to build the party in the state but Kejriwal overlooked the party workers when he came for the road show in Mandi. Thus we were disappointed with him as only Kejriwal and Mann were the highlight of the road show and no one from the state.
"This was considered as ignorance thus as an insult we quit the party for self-respect," he said.
Kesari assured Thakur and Nadda of working more harder for the saffron party to bring it back to power in the upcoming assembly polls.
While Anurag Thakur said that Kejriwal has insulted his own party leaders and workers during the roadshow. "As Kejriwal overlooked and insulted his own dedicated leaders and workers. As during the road show in Mandi, except Kejriwal and Mann, no one was allowed on the vehicle," he said.
While trying to make inroads into Himachal Pradesh just months before the assembly elections (November) in the hill state, AAP had on Wednesday kick-started its election campaign in the state with a road show in Mandi where it’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, sought at least one chance from the people as compared to 30 years of Congress and 17 years of the BJP rule.
In the 2017 assembly election the BJP had won 44 seats in the 68 member state assembly and formed the government and jai Ram Thakur became the Chief Minister after former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal who was in race for the post of CM lost the elections. But in the by-elections last year the saffron party lost.