New Delhi: Like many other political parties, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also facing revolt and internal feud. Some disillusioned workers and leaders have left the party in the past one month. The latest to quit is its national executive member Ashok Aggarawal. He quit in protest against the AAP fielding 'elite' individuals in the Lok Sabha elections. He claims that most of the AAP candidates are not really aam aadmis (common people). He has described the AAP as a party of elite individuals.
A closer look at the AAP candidates list proves that his allegations or remarks have some substance. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal always maintains that his candidates are very ordinary people who have no access to the corridors of power and they are all unknown names. It is also true that he had fielded many such names in the Delhi elections and some of them won creating a new history in India's notorious electoral politics.
But, in the Lok Sabha polls, he has chosen many well known names over real aam aadmis. It has led to a huge controversy and heartburn among the real workers.
Three of his seven candidates from Delhi are journalists. In India, journalists belong to one of the most powerful sections of the society. They are not common people. Out of three journalists (Ashutosh, Ashish Khetan and Jarnail Singh), two are very well known (Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan) and have had unlimited access to corridors of power.
Eminent historian Rajmohan Gandhi who is contesting from East Delhi is also a very big name. He is Mahatma Gandhi's grandson and was earlier associated with the Janata Pariwar. The AAP candidate from Gurgaon and one of its most important leaders, Prof. Yogendra Yadav, is also a very big name in the intellectual and academic circles of India. He was on the advisory board of many government organisations in the past.
The AAP candidate from Ludhiana, HS Phoolka, is also a known name. There are strong rumours that the AAP might field film actress and model Gul Panag from Chandigarh. She is anything, but an aam aadmi. Her father is a retired top general in the Indian Army.
The AAP from Maharashtra also has not so aam aadmi names like former banker Meera Sanyal, Anjali Damania and others. In Karnataka, the AAP has fielded former CFO of Infosys V Balakrishnan from Bangalore Central. He is hardly an aam aadmi in Bangalore. He has no history of rubbing his shoulders with the common people, when he was a director at the Infosys.
Its candidates from Bangalore South Nina P Nayak, Ravi Krishna Reddy from Bangalore Rural and Arkesh from Chikballapur are also not common people. The AAP candidate from Gulbarga seat, Dr BT Lalitha Naik, was a minister in the Janata Dal government in Karnataka. She is also hardly an aam aadmi by Indian standards.
The selection of the candidates and AAP's new found love for the powerful and the elite are giving a chance to its critics to call it a party of some elite individuals.
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