IANS/New Delhi
Aam Aadmi Party founder member Madhu Bhaduri has dissociated herself from the new political outfit expressing disillusion with its functioning of late.
“I have removed myself from the party. The party does not treat women as human beings,” Bhaduri, a former ambassador to Portugal, said.
She was indirectly referring to the midnight incident in south Delhi in which Law Minister Somnath Bharti, along with party workers, illegally raided a house where African women lived and accused them of being involved in a prostitution racket.
“My outlook is no longer same as the party’s outlook. This is not the same party which was founded a year ago. There is no (question of my) resignation as I held no post,” she added.
Also yesterday Delhi legislator Vinod Kumar Binny, expelled from the AAP, and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) lawmaker Shoaib Iqbal threatened to withdraw support to the one-month-old government if it did not agree to their demands.
Binny also claimed to have the support of three other legislators, including an independent who had supported the AAP government during the crucial vote of confidence.
“We are setting a deadline of 48 hours for the AAP to fulfil our demands. If our demands are not met, we will be forced to re-think the support we have given,” Iqbal said.
The two, who also announced launching an independent political outfit, demanded the rollback of 6-8% power rate surcharge, supplying daily 700 litres of water without any condition and a probe against the corrupt people named by the party in its poll campaign.
In the December 2013 Delhi assembly elections, the AAP won 28 seats in the 70-member house and formed the government with the outside support of the Congress that had won eight seats.
Iqbal and an independent also extended support to the AAP in the assembly.
Of AAP’s 28 lawmakers, one was elected speaker and another member - Binny - was expelled for anti-party activities.
*AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in comments published yesterday that the party targeted “corrupt politicians” for four reasons.
“There are four reasons,” Kejriwal was quoted by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper as telling a group of Pakistani journalists who called on him.
“We are against corruption among politicians,” he said, listing the reasons.
“We are against their criminalisation,” he added. “We are against their commercialisation. And we are also against dynastic politics.”
Addressing a party conference on Friday, the Aam Aadmi Party founder listed several leading Indian politicians as corrupt and said they should be defeated in the coming Lok Sabha election.
Kejriwal said what piqued him most was the reluctance of successive governments in India to weed out corruption.
