AAP MLAs from Punjab summoned to meet CM

Chandigarh: The AAP’s central leadership has called the party’s Punjab leaders, including MLAs, for a meeting with its national convener Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on Sunday, after a majority of its MLAs in the state yesterday discussed the option of splitting and forming a separate unit.

Mr Kejriwal’s apology to SAD leader and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia for accusing him of being involved in drugs trade pushed AAP’s state unit into a crisis as its Punjab unit president Bhagwant Mann and co-president Aman Arora resigned from their posts on Friday.

The state leadership had said the “meek surrender” was painful. In a further jolt, the Lok Insaf Party (LIP), AAP’s ally in the state, announced to break its alliance with the party in the wake of Mr Kejriwal’s apology. Senior leader and AAP MLA Kanwar Sandhu on Saturday said, “We have got a message and call from Manish Sisodia for a meeting tomorrow in Delhi. We were told that Arvind ji will also be in the meeting.” Mr Sandhu, however, said that he would not attend the meeting. “It was yesterday decided by a majority of MLAs here that future meetings with the central leadership should only be held in Chandigarh,” he said. Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira also said that he would not go to Delhi to attend the meeting. “I think a vast majority of MLAs will not attend this meeting,” he said. A two-round marathon meeting was held on Saturday by the Punjab unit of the AAP here in which a resolution on splitting from the Delhi unit and forming a separate unit was discussed, though a final decision was deferred.