Ranchi, March 24
The Aam Aadmi Party in Jharkhand is on the verge of a split, with a section of its leaders deciding on Monday to boycott all but one of the party's eight official candidates and to nominate alternate candidates in four Lok Sabha constituencies.
The meeting, attended by party workers including a member of the now-disbanded Preparatory Committee and the former Ranchi Convenor of the AAP, decided that they would support only Khunti candidate Dayamani Barla. The rebel group has also laid claim to the AAP's official status and election symbol.
"We have decided to nominate Amit Kumar, who has been part of the anti-corruption movement for three years, as the Ranchi candidate. We will also have candidates in Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Hazaribag. We are the AAP; our candidates will demand the broom as election symbol," said Sunil Mahato, former member of the Preparatory Committee.
Trouble within the party began on February 5, when the AAP's state incharge Somnath Tripathi tried to announce the formation of a 11-member Election Campaign Committee in Ranchi. AAP members had disrupted his press conference, alleging that most members of the committee were not even party members.
The immediate anger was brought on by the identity of the party's Ranchi candidate Amanullah Aman, whom the rebel leaders allege is not even an AAP member. "He did not even submit an online application for candidature. Amanullah Aman lives in Lohardaga - in 2012, he tried to contest the Hatia asembly bypoll on a Congress ticket; in 2009, he tried to get a Lok Sabha seat from the JVM(P). He is no different from the people the Aam Aadmi Party is trying to throw out," claimed former Ranchi Convenor, Ajay Chaudhary.
The disgruntlement spread and has now affected seven of the AAP's candidates in the state. "Most of them were not active in the party; they have not worked among the people here. Dayamani Barla is the only exception, so we will support her. Everybody else was sent from Delhi without consulting party workers in the state. This is no Swaraj," said Sunil Mahato.
Amanullah Aman is an IIT-Kharagpur graduate who says he left a life of luxury to serve the people. "After leaving the corporate world, I have been working for the people since 2007, but never got to fight an election. I have been involved in several election campaigns. The AAP has given me a chance, I will do my best. It is a democratic country and anybody is free to contest against me," he said. Incidentally, JVM(P)'s Ranchi candidate Amitabh Choudhary is also an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus.
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