Kejriwal picks team, Binny picks a fight
25 Dec 2013 6:41 AM IST
Soon after party leader and chief minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal declared his team to the party, AAP MLA from Laxmi Nagar seat Vinod Kumar Binny expressed his displeasure and walked out of Kejriwal’s residence in a huff. A two-time independent councilor, Binny had defeated veteran Congress leader and number two in outgoing government Ashok Walia by a comfortable margin.
According to AAP sources, party strategist Yogendra Yadav has been deputed by the leadership to mollify Binny, who has threatened to call a press conference on Wednesday to make a ‘big expose’. ‘Binny has misunderstood his exclusion from the team as the party has decided another crucial role for him. We are very sure he would understand and come around,’ said AAP source.
Addressing media persons at around 8.15 pm, party leader Manish Sisodia announced that he himself (winner from Patparganj) in addition to Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar), Rakhi Birla (Mongolpuri), Satendra Jain (Shakurbasti), Girish Soni (Madipur) and Saurabh Bhardwaj (Greater Kailash) are the ministers-designate who would be sworn in with Kejriwal most likely on 26 December.
Sisodia parried the question on the walkout by Binny, saying, ‘He has been briefed about the role which the party thinks appropriate for him. I have no knowledge about Binny being angry or disgruntled.’ On being asked why Binny, the lone legislator with some legislative experience was denied a berth, Sisodia said, ‘This question would be answered by Arvind Kejriwal.’
To add to the problems, Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi has distanced the party’s central leadership from the decision to support AAP government in Delhi. Reflecting the unease in sections of the Congress over its support to AAP to form government in Delhi, senior party leader Dwivedi on Tuesday said there was an opinion in the party that the decision to support AAP was perhaps not correct and it should have instead raised people’s issues as an opposition.
‘Their argument is that Delhi voters have not given their support to the Congress to the extent that the party could win only eight seats and it has not even got the post of Leader of the Opposition. Perhaps, it would have been appropriate that we would have left it to others to form the government,’ Dwivedi said.
The Congress general secretary, whose voice matters in the party, at the same time said, ‘Since now a proposal (to support AAP) has already been made, we have to carry on with that. Perhaps we will have to find out a middle path.’
As conflicting voices emerged in the Congress over the issue, BJP hit out at both AAP and Congress alleging that they were collaborating to form government in a ‘self- serving’ exercise with ‘dishonourable’ motive. It said this was happening as Congress wants a breather and fears another electoral humiliation while AAP was keen to prevent its MLAs from getting ‘scattered’.
According to AAP sources, party strategist Yogendra Yadav has been deputed by the leadership to mollify Binny, who has threatened to call a press conference on Wednesday to make a ‘big expose’. ‘Binny has misunderstood his exclusion from the team as the party has decided another crucial role for him. We are very sure he would understand and come around,’ said AAP source.
Addressing media persons at around 8.15 pm, party leader Manish Sisodia announced that he himself (winner from Patparganj) in addition to Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar), Rakhi Birla (Mongolpuri), Satendra Jain (Shakurbasti), Girish Soni (Madipur) and Saurabh Bhardwaj (Greater Kailash) are the ministers-designate who would be sworn in with Kejriwal most likely on 26 December.
Sisodia parried the question on the walkout by Binny, saying, ‘He has been briefed about the role which the party thinks appropriate for him. I have no knowledge about Binny being angry or disgruntled.’ On being asked why Binny, the lone legislator with some legislative experience was denied a berth, Sisodia said, ‘This question would be answered by Arvind Kejriwal.’
To add to the problems, Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi has distanced the party’s central leadership from the decision to support AAP government in Delhi. Reflecting the unease in sections of the Congress over its support to AAP to form government in Delhi, senior party leader Dwivedi on Tuesday said there was an opinion in the party that the decision to support AAP was perhaps not correct and it should have instead raised people’s issues as an opposition.
‘Their argument is that Delhi voters have not given their support to the Congress to the extent that the party could win only eight seats and it has not even got the post of Leader of the Opposition. Perhaps, it would have been appropriate that we would have left it to others to form the government,’ Dwivedi said.
The Congress general secretary, whose voice matters in the party, at the same time said, ‘Since now a proposal (to support AAP) has already been made, we have to carry on with that. Perhaps we will have to find out a middle path.’
As conflicting voices emerged in the Congress over the issue, BJP hit out at both AAP and Congress alleging that they were collaborating to form government in a ‘self- serving’ exercise with ‘dishonourable’ motive. It said this was happening as Congress wants a breather and fears another electoral humiliation while AAP was keen to prevent its MLAs from getting ‘scattered’.
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