Patiala MP criticises AAP’s candidate selection process
Tuesday, 08/03/2016
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PATIALA: Dissident Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Member of Parliament Dr Dharamvira Gandhi on Monday raised questions over the selection procedure of candidates of the party for the 2017 assembly polls and termed it as dictatorial in nature.
Dr Gandhi expressed his disbelief at the way the AAP had tweaked the process of selection of candidates for the forthcoming assembly election, which had excluded the volunteers from having a say in the process.
Criticising AAP Punjab in-charge Sanjay Singh, who re por tedly castig ated the process adopted at the time of Parliamentary elections that ensured participation of volunteers in the selection of candidates, the Patiala MP said it was causing ‘severe rifts among the party volunteers’.
“Punjab elected four MPs and fetched 24.7% vote share in the elections as against its dismal performance in other states. The volunteer’s involvement and their enthusiasm was a big boost for the performance,” Dr Gandhi said.
Dr Gandhi ridiculed the idea of ‘final short-listing of candidates’ in the working committee to be held in the second week of March as disempowerment of volunteers and reneging on the idea of ‘Swaraj’ pronounced by Kejriwal himself in his book on the same title.
“This is yet another way to deprive the volunteers of their active participation in the political and organisational processes. Induction of elements from other parties has already created restlessness in the ranks of Aam Aadmi Party,” he said, adding that his charges about the dictatorial attitude of the “high command’ was proving right.
He said the party had already been disarrayed because it deviated from its real ideology and had started behaving like all other traditional parties, which snubbed the voice of common workers.
