Alka Lamba claims she was removed from AAP’s messaging group; party hits back

After facing a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) now seems to be facing clashes with its disgruntled legislators.

Disgruntled Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba on Saturday claimed that she has been “sidelined” by the party again, even as AAP convener and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal directed all party MLAs to intensify their public outreach programmes for the 2020 Assembly polls.

Lamba claimed that she was removed from the party’s MLA WhatsApp group after she praised Naveen Patnaik for winning a fifth term as the chief minister of Odisha. The WhatsApp group Lamba talked about also includes party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

A screenshot of the group shared by Lamba revealed that after the party’s general elections drubbing, Kejriwal wrote to all AAP MLAs asking them to pull up their socks. “From today, from now, all legislators will have to do a lot of hard work…” read Kejriwal’s message which was in Hindi. Assembly elections in Delhi are scheduled to be held early next year.

The same screenshot also purportedly shows Lamba being removed by AAP’s North East Delhi candidate Dilip Pandey from the group.

“Why am I being held responsible for the party’s loss in the Lok Sabha elections. Action should be taken against those who took decisions sitting inside closed rooms,” Lamba said.

“I am sometimes added to the group, sometimes removed. It would have been better if a meeting was held to introspect, look at the shortcomings and move forward,” she said.

Contacted, the AAP, however, said that it did not want to comment. “She is an attention seeker,” said Saurabh Bhardwaj, the party’s spokesperson.

On Kejriwal’s message to all AAP MLAs, he said, “Some MLAs had raised a point that some people are unhappy about few local works in their area. To that, the CM had asked them to meet such people with humility, assure them of speedy work and apologise for inconvenience.”

Dilip Pandey, who lost his deposit as AAP’s candidate from north east Delhi, did not respond to repeated requests for a comment on the matter.