New Delhi:EROS TIMES: January 2020—Aam Aadmi Party MLA Adarsh Shastri, along with a large number of his followers, today joined the Congress party in the presence Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhash Chopra and AICC in-charge of Delhi P.C.Chacko.
Subhash Chopra, welcoming Shastri into the Congress fold, said it was “Ghar Vapasi” for the young leader whose roots have been in the Congress.
Adarsh Shastri accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of flouting all democratic norms to “sell” tickets for the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi for Rs 10 to 20 crores.
Chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma and ex-MLA Naseeb Singh, Captain Khawinder Singh and Tasvir Solanki were also present at the press conference.
Subhash Chopra said that the Aam Aadmi Party Government in Delhi has failed on all fronts, threw its idealism into winds, to indulge in corruption and total indifference towards the people of Delhi, He said that the Kejriwal Government came to power with the specific agenda of ending corruption and implementing Swaraj and Lok Pal, adding that though it has passed the Lok Pal Bill in the Assembly, the AAP Government has not taken any step to enforce the Lok Pal.
Chopra said that the irony is that after being in power for five years, Kejriwal himself has become a symbol of corruption.
Subhash Chopra said that the Aam Aadmi Party does not have any volunteers as most of them have deserted the party, disillusioned with the autocratic, undemocratic style of functioning of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In reply to a question, Chopra said that there was a long line of aspirants for the Congress tickets, and the party tickets will be given to only those people who are totally committed and devoted to the party, and not to those who display the might of wealth.
He said that the people of Delhi have been enthused by the Congress agitations on various issues affecting the people in the past few weeks, and they want the Congress back to power in Delhi.
P.C.Chacko said that the Kejriwal Government has also neglected youth and students.
He said that the people of Delhi feel betrayed by the Kejriwal Government and is totally disappointed with it as it has not done anything for their uplift.
He said that the AAP volunteers, disappointed with Kejriwal’s autocratic style of functioning, have been deserting AAP.
He said that Congress will be further strengthened in Delhi with the joining of Adarsh Shastri.
Remembering the yeoman service of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chacko said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also given her approval for Adarsh Shastri’s return to the Congress.
Adarsh Shastri slammed Arvind Kejriwal for belittling the self-respect of the AAP MLAs. Explaining his own experience, Shri Shastri said that when he left a high-paying job with multinational company Apple to join AAP, he thought that a honest man would herald clean politics, but his experiences in the past five years have taught him otherwise.
He said that he changed his opinion about AAP after it sold tickets through two Rajya Sabha MPs, instead of giving them to committed AAP volunteers. He said that there was huge corruption in the AAP party’s ticket distribution for the MCD elections.
Shastri said that Kejriwal will be best remembered for spreading corruption in politics.
He said that he had requested Kejriwal to give tickets to devoted AAP workers, but he instead sold them for Rs 10 to 20 crores. Shastri alleged that Kejriwal treats MLAs like ‘bonded labour’, giving them least respect.
Adarsh Shastri said that Kejriwal always refrain from commenting on important issues and his stony silence on the Citizenship Amendment Act, the violence against students at Jamia and JNU, despite his pleadings, was baffling. He accused Kejriwal of playing ‘vote bank politics’, adding that he was an irresponsible Chief Minister, who seems to be least concerned about the plight of the people of Delhi.
Mukesh Sharma said that many senior leaders from other political parties have expressed their desire to join the Congress party, which the party was seriously considering.
He said that in the next few days, MLAs and senior leaders were likely to join the Congress.