Gujarat: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which surprised many with its victory in Surat Municipal elections in 2021, is appearing to be in splits in Gujarat. On Friday midnight, six AAP municipal councillors in Surat switched sides to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Along with them, four AAP councillors who had left the party earlier formally joined the BJP. CR Patil, who is Gujarat BJP chief and a member of Lok Sabha from the Navsari constituency, presided over the event. Gujarat’s Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi was also present during the occasion.
The six municipal councillors who left AAP are Ghanshyam Makwana, Dharmendra Vavaliya, Kiran Khokhani, Ashok Dhami, Niraliben Patel and Swati Kyada. The four councillors who had left the party earlier are Bhavnaben Solanki, Rutaben Kheni, Jyotikaben Lathiya and Vipulbhai Movaliya.
The AAP had made a spectacular debut in the Surat civic body in 2021 winning a total of 27 seats. The Surat victory had marked AAP’s official entry into Gujarat’s politics. Now, out of the 27 seats, only 17 are left with AAP. The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has 120 seats. The BJP had won 93 seats in the 2021 polls. With 10 AAP councillors joining the saffron party, it now has 103 members in the house. Congress did not win any seat in the polls.
Speaking at their welcome ceremony, minister Sanghavi said, “AAP corporators resigned from their party and joined the BJP.” He added that the true face of AAP is coming to light before the country today. “The way AAP leaders spared nothing to defame Gujarat and people of the state, corporators of AAP joined the BJP with a pledge to develop their respective wards,” the minister told reporters.
Meanwhile, the state unit of the AAP alleged that its corporators were being lured as well as threatened into joining the BJP. In a video statement, AAP corporator Dipti Sakariya alleged that she was invited to the residence of a BJP minister in state capital Gandhinagar, where she was offered money to join the BJP. Another AAP corporator Rachna Hirpara said the BJP has been trying to make AAP corporators switch sides ever since they won the election.
In the 2022 Gujarat Assembly Election, the AAP troubled the BJP and Congress to win five maiden seats with a vote share of 12.92 per cent. The Gujarat assembly seats won by the AAP were Botad, Dediapada, Gariadhar, Jamjodhpur and Visavadar. With its victory in Punjab, Delhi and Gujarat, the AAP became eligible to get the status of a national party. The Election Commission of India on April 10 accorded the status of a national party to the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.
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