Exit of some leaders won't affect AAP's poll prospects: Mann

Chandigarh: AAP's Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann on Sunday said some leaders and workers leaving the party was not going to impact its candidate's prospects in the upcoming Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll.

Joginder Singh Chinna, who had contested 2017 Punjab assembly polls on AAP ticket from Dinanagar seat, today joined BJP with his supporters in Pathankot.

On Saturday, another AAP leader Kulbhushan Singh, who had contested 2017 assembly polls from Sujanpur seat, and party's co-ordinator for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha polls Lakhvir Singh, joined the Congress, along with their supporters in Pathankot.

"There is not going to be any impact on the prospects of our candidate (Major General (Retd) Suresh Khajuria) in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll because of some people leaving the party," Mann said.

"It is the voters who are to decide the fate of the contestant in any election," he said.

The AAP Punjab chief refused to acknowledge that the switchover by its leaders and workers to other political outfits was a "setback" to the AAP as claimed by the BJP and Congress. "It was good that those, who were greedy for some posts and not following the party's ideology, left on their own. They were complete misfit in the party's structure," Mann said, adding, it is the organisation which is supreme.

The Sangrur MP also rubbished the allegation of Joginder Singh Chinna that Mann has transformed the AAP into a "private company".

"These are baseless allegations," he said.