What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
In an interesting twist, a senior leader and two newly-elected councillors – all Muslim – returned to Congress hours after joining the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, terming their decision to switch sides “a big mistake”.
Delhi Congress vice president Ali Mehdi along with two councillors Shabila Begum and Nazia Khatoon joined the AAP in presence of MLA Durgesh Pathak on Friday but announced their homecoming hours later.
Late on Friday night, Ali released a video on Twitter, calling his decision to leave the Congress “a big mistake” and himself a “true soldier of Rahul Gandhi”.
“I do not want any posts. I will remain a worker of the Congress and of Rahul Gandhi. I committed a big mistake. With my folded hands, I apologise to Rahul Gandhi Ji, Priyanka Gandhi Ji, and the Congress party. I will remain in the Congress party. My father is with Congress for 40 years,” the Congress leader said in the video statement.
Among the nine councillors of the Congress, Shabila Begum and Nazia Khatoon won from the Mustafabad Assembly area of northeast Delhi in the recently-concluded elections for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
Speaking at a press conference after joining the AAP, Mehdi said, “We feel proud to be in the AAP a day after it became a national party. Over the years, I have noticed that the people of Delhi are highly impressed by the way CM Arvind Kejriwal has been working for the residents.”
It is not clear what led Ali and two councillors to go back to Congress within hours, sources said people in Mustafabad had protested the Congress leaders’ to join CM Arvind Kejriwal’s side.
Though the AAP emerged victorious on 134 out of 250 seats in the MCD, it did not perform well in Muslim-dominated areas of Delhi. In the Okhla Assembly constituency, represented by AAP’s Muslim face Amanatullah Khan, the party could not win any of the two wards.
In northeast Delhi, from where Ali Mehdi hails, AAP lost five out of six wards it won in 2017.
Political pundits blame AAP’s soft stance on issues concerning the Muslim community for its poor performance in the MCD elections. AAP’s stand on issues like the northeast Delhi riots and the Bilkis Bano case did not go down well with the minority voters.
