AAP's Karnataka co-convener quits party ahead of Lok Sabha polls, says central leadership ignoring state unit

Bengaluru: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Aam Aadmi Party in Karnataka on Tuesday suffered a jolt when its state co-convener Shivakumar Chengalraya quit the party accusing the central leadership of ignoring Karnataka.

“I quit because you know that it (AAP) is losing relevance. Each one of us has contributed for it. Blaming Prithvi Reddy, (party’s national executive member from Karnataka) alone will not serve the purpose. The national team also kept on ignoring us (Karnataka unit of AAP). Even today it continues,” Chengalraya said.

Upset over the party’s leadership making some appointments in the state unit allegedly without consulting the unit leaders, he said, in a statement, that he was not in active politics and was not associated with any political party for the past few months. Chengalraya said he will start political activism at the ground level soon with well-known activists in the state.

“During the state Assembly election Arvind (Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal) did not come. These things should not be discussed in media but now I can speak. No national leader came. It is only we who struggled so hard,” Chengalraya, who is also the state political affairs in-charge, said.

Chengalraya said the state unit fully supported the national leadership but the latter ignored it.

The party had fielded 28 candidates in the May 2018 Assembly polls and all of them forfeited their deposits.