He was the CM face of the party in recent assembly elections; Upadhyaya too quits AAP
Thursday, 19 May 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
In a major jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) electoral plans in Uttarakhand, colonel (retd) Ajay Kothiyal left the party on Wednesday. Kothiyal was the chief ministerial candidate of the AAP in the recent assembly elections. In another shock for the party the former officiating president of AAP, Bhupesh Upadhyaya also left the party on the day.
In his resignation letter directed to the national convenor of the AAP, Arvind Kejriwal, Col Kothiyal said that he joined the party on April 18, 2021 and on May 18 he is resigning from the party. Col Kothiyal said that he is leaving the party in view of the sentiments of the ex servicemen, retired Para military force personnel, Youth, women and elderly of the state.
While Kothiyal was circumspect in his resignation letter, the former officiating president of the party Bhupesh Upadhyaya was more expressive. In his resignation letter he said that ideology and working style of AAP is not in the interests of the people of Uttarakhand and this is the reason why people of the state have rejected the party in the recent assembly elections. He also raised questions on the selection of the new executive body of the party in the state.
The resignation of Col Kothiyal and Upadhyaya assumes significance since both these leaders were the biggest names of the party in Uttarakhand. In fact Col Kothiyal was the CM face of the party but under his leadership the party failed to make any impact on the electorate. In the assembly elections AAP could not win from even a single seat in Uttarakhand. Col Kothiyal who had contested from the Gangotri assembly constituency finished a poor third. In fact Kothiyal could not save his deposit as he secured only 5998 votes to finish third behind Suresh Singh Chauhan of BJP and Vijay Pal Sajwan of Congress. Upadhyaya contested from Kapkote assembly but here he finished third behind Suresh Gadia of BJP and Lalit Pharswan of Congress.
