Loyalists to rebels: 8 AAP MLAs who switched to BJP
What's the story
Eight Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, elected in the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, resigned from their posts on Friday.
They cited "growing corruption" and a "lack of internal democracy" as reasons for their exit.
The legislators also accused the party leadership of straying from its founding principles.
Notably, all eight were denied AAP tickets for the upcoming February 5 Delhi polls, with new candidates in their place.
Allegations
MLAs accuse AAP of corruption, nepotism
Madan Lal, a veteran AAP member and Kasturba Nagar MLA, also expressed his disillusionment with Arvind Kejriwal and the party.
He alleged the AAP was involved in corruption and replaced dedicated candidates with those having criminal backgrounds.
Mehrauli's Naresh Yadav criticized the party for becoming corrupt and replacing him with a former Congress leader despite his suggestions for honest candidates.
Party switch
MLAs join BJP after resigning from AAP
Bhupinder Singh Joon (Bijwasan) alleged corruption in ticket distribution and claimed he was dropped for raising constituency issues that irked the leadership.
Rohit Kumar Mehraulia (Trilokpuri) accused the party of exploiting his community for votes without addressing their concerns.
Bhavna Gaur (Palam), Pawan Sharma (Adarsh Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), and Girish Soni (Madipur) also resigned, citing similar grievances.
A day after their resignation, all eight MLAs joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a ceremony attended by BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda.
New beginnings
BJP welcomes former AAP MLAs
Welcoming the former AAP MLAs, Panda called it a "historic day" as they abandoned the "misery of the AAP-da (disaster) party."
The resignations come days ahead of Delhi's single-phase election on February 5, with counting on February 8.
Some of the legislators said they waited till the last date of nomination to see if the AAP would change its mind on their candidature but resigned after the deadline passed.