Chennai: The Aam Admi Party on Sunday flushed out five ‘rebels’ from its Tamil Nadu unit in an effort to repair its dented image and strengthen the hands of state convener Christina Samy in her battle against a motley group of challengers.
AAP’s national executive committee member, Prashant Bhushan, who flew into the city to set the house in order and prepare the party for the big membership drive, which should naturally follow the win in Delhi, told a press conference that the five rebels — K. P. Narayanan, M. Krishnamoorthy, K. Balakrishnan, Nazreen Saldana Mina and Y. Arul Dass — have been expelled for anti-party activities.
After holding the district executive meeting, Bhushan said, “The people are expelled from the party and are not authorised to represent the party or claim any association with it.”
They had been, in fact, pretenders and usurpers, as they were claiming to hold positions in the party that had not been cleared by the headquarters.
Next: AAP confident of party growth
AAP confident of party growth
Chennai: The eminent lawyer said AAP had already enrolled one lakh members in Tamil Nadu and was confident of increasing the number five-fold in a year’s time. “Our executive committee meeting will be held during the end of February, when we will discuss and decide whether AAP should put up candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu,” Bhushan said when asked about the party’s plan for the forthcoming elections.
“We are going to contest elections from as many seats in the country as possible. We will take a final call on it by February end when we will have a reasonable idea on the candidates available,” he added.
On the gas price scam, he said it was strange and surprising that no BJP leader spoke a word about it. “The main issue is that the generation of corrupt money has created the mafia and it is this mafia that controls the entire system of power, including leading (political) parties, and BJP and Modi are no exception to that,” the AAP leader said. It only proves the BJP’s top leadership is completely controlled by big corporate”, he said.
Asked if AAP would rope in anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar into the party's fold, Bhushan said he is an excellent activist who has been raising a very important issue (Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant)."We want such an activist in our party. We hope he joins the party or at least supports it".
