Infighting in AAP's Punjab unit family matter, will be resolved: Arvind Kejriwal

Rohtak, Aug 9: Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal played down the infighting in the party's Punjab unit, calling it a family matter.

"Fights do take place among members of a family. It will be resolved," he told reporters here. He also hit out at Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, saying, “He doesn’t know how to work.” The Punjab unit of the AAP went into a crisis after party legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira was removed recently from the post of Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly.

Khaira and seven other MLAs have now declared the AAP’s Punjab unit "autonomous" and “dissolved” the present organisational structure. The dissident have also set up an ad hoc political affairs committee which will choose a parallel head of the state unit.

Khaira has called Kejriwal and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia "dictators." But Kejriwal today said, “The "issue is within the family and it will be resolved." On being asked about the resignations tendered in March by Sangrur MP Bhagwant Singh Mann and Sunam MLA Aman Arora as president and co-president of the state unit, Kejriwal said both posts are vacant.

At the same time, he added that the resignations were not accepted by the party. The two had resigned in protest after Kejriwal apologised for accusing Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia of being involved in the drug trade. However, Bhagwant Mann has recently traded charges with Khaira, indicating that he is not with the dissidents.

Kejriwal said Haryana lagged behind Delhi in terms of development, and asked Khattar why he had failed to revolutionise the power, water, education and health sectors. "Khattar should learn from us how to work,” the Delhi Chief Minister said.

He claimed that the Delhi government had brought in a revolution in the sectors of water, power, education and health despite the hurdles created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the lieutenant governor's office. He demanded that the Haryana government should distribute Rs 1 crore each to the families of martyred soldiers, on the pattern of Delhi. On the contentious issue of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, he accused the Congress, the BJP and the SAD in Haryana and Punjab of playing politics.

PTI