Chandigarh: Giving a jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Haryana, two of its senior leaders have quit the party.
Nirmal Singh, a former minister in the previous Congress government and his daughter Chitra Sarwara had joined AAP in April last year. While Singh held the post of national joint secretary in AAP, Chitra was the vice-president of the party’s Haryana unit. They submitted their resignation to the AAP Rajya Sabha member and party state incharge Sushil Gupta on Thursday, citing personal reasons.
Sources said that father-daughter duo are likely to join the Congress next week in New Delhi in the presence of the Central leadership of the party.
Pertinently the resignations have come a few days after Chitra ended the AAP’s ``Badlav Yatra’’ (march for change) in Panipat. Though Singh had also participated in the said ``yatra’’ he discontinued it after it reached Kurukshetra.
Huge setback for AAP after senior leaders resign
Meanwhile, the development was seen as a setback to the AAP as the two had been prominent faces in the northern Haryana with a solid support. Both of them had fared second in their respective assembly seats in the 2019 polls when they had fought as independent candidates after being denied ticket by Congress.
Besides, the development has also put the party in poor light as it was in power in the neighbouring Punjab.
Both leaders' political stint with Congress
While Singh had been a four-time legislator from the former Naggal seat of Ambala seat, Chitra held various positions while being in Congress. Both had quit Congress 2019 when Singh was denied ticket for his daughter from Ambala cantt. On being denied, she fought the seat as an independent and he from Ambala city seat and finished second, while the Congress candidates lost their security deposits.
They are said to be close to former two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
