'Murder of democracy' in AAP: Nearly 350 party workers resign; back Yadav and Bhushan

Mumbai, May 4: Nearly 350 AAP volunteers and leaders from Maharashtra today quit in protest against the "murder of democracy" in the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, showing their support to expelled leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav.

"As many as 350 volunteers and leaders resigned from AAP and this figure would go up when we will start to sensitise everyone about democracy being murdered in AAP," said Maruti Bhapkar, former state executive committee member of AAP unit in Maharashtra.

Bhapkar led the workers in the mass resignation programme held in Pune. "We are now with Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan to strengthen their hands to afloat the concept of Swaraj throughout the country in true sense," he added.

"You can think about the insensitivity of so-called leader Arvind Kejriwal that a farmer died before his eyes and he kept on his political speech," Bhapkar said.

"Not only from Pune, but volunteers from Mumbai, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Aurangabad, Navi Mumbai etc also had come to Pune to quit AAP," he added.

Manav Kamble, another former senior leader from AAP, has also joined hands with Bhapkar.

However, a senior AAP leader downplayed the resignations and said that this is not going to affect the party in anyway.

"Only handful party workers are leaving the party and that comprises no senior leaders or workers. So I don't think that they would leave any impact on the party," said Ravi Srivastava, member of State Executive Committee.

Subhash Ware, head of AAP unit of Maharashtra, could not be contacted as he was convening a meeting of district workers of Ahmednagar today.

PTI