DEHRADUN/ NEW DELHI: Colonel Ajay Kothiyal (retd), who was the Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate in Uttarakhand assembly polls held in February this year, resigned from the party on Wednesday.
The former army officer announced his decision to quit the party on Twitter, posting a soft copy of his resignation letter on the microblogging site. The AAP had suffered a rout at the hustings with Kothiyal losing his deposit from the Gangotri assembly seat.
"I have been a member of the Aam Aadmi Party from April 19, 2021 to May 18, 2022. Keeping the feelings of ex-soldiers, ex para-military personnel, the elders, women, youths and the intellectuals, I am sending you my resignation on May 18," Col Kothiyal said in his letter addressed to AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Kothiyal is said to have been unhappy with the way he was being treated by the party after the debacle in assembly elections. He had not been invited to a party meeting held in New Delhi recently to analyse its performance in Uttarakhand.
Announcing the name of Kothiyal for his party's chief ministerial candidate in August last year, Kejriwal had then said the decision to pick the former army officer as the party's CM face was based on the feedback received from people of the state.
The AAP had fielded its candidates on all the 70 seats in the state elections, but could not win any of them.