In a major setback to Aam Aadmi Party in Gujarat, one of its leaders Indranil Rajyaguru rejoined the Congress within hours of Isudan Ghadvi being named the party’s chief ministerial candidate.
AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced journalist turned politician Ghadvi’s name as their chief ministerial candidate for upcoming Gujarat polls. The name was announced after the party sought responses from the public.
Cracks developed in the AAP, which is attempting to eat into both the BJP and the Congress’ vote share, as Rajyaguru was probably aspiring to be named as the CM face of the party.
Hailing from Rajkot, Rajyaguru had quit the Congress barely seven months ago and joined the AAP and showered praises on Kejriwal.
On Friday evening, he rejoined the Congress in the presence of Gujarat Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma and Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor.
The richest candidate of 2017 assembly polls, Rajyaguru had contested from Rajkot (West) seat and lost to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani.
In New Delhi, Rajyaguru claimed that it isn’t that he rejoined the Congress after Ghadvi’s name was announced as the chief ministerial candidate. “I have not been in Kejriwal’s last three-odd meetings,” he pointed out, alleging that the AAP is the B-team of the BJP and he had not joined the AAP to be part of the B-team.
He claimed that he had joined the AAP so that he could defeat the BJP. “I saw that they have a pattern and want to create a dent in the Congress votes and help the BJP. They will not listen and then I realized that it is only the Congress that can defeat the BJP,” he held.
Allegations came in from the AAP also. Party’s state president Gopal Italia alleged that Rajyaguru was aspiring to be declared as the CM face and he was creating pressure. Italia also alleged that Rajyaguru was pressurizing the party to allow him to decide candidates for 15 seats.
Italia claimed that the AAP has declared the CM candidate based on the votes that the person got in responses that the party had sought.
