Former AAP leader Mukesh Goel talking to mediapersons after announcing the formation of IVP; he had fought the February 5 Assembly election unsuccessfully on an AAP ticket.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Nearly three weeks after losing the mayoral elections and the majority in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the Aam Aadmi Party suffered another blow on Saturday when 15 of its councillors resigned from the party and announced the formation of a new outfit — Indraprastha Vikas Party (IVP).

The development comes just weeks ahead of the elections for two vacancies in the MCD’s Standing Committee — the civic body’s main decision-making arm with executive powers to grant approval to projects worth over ₹5 crore — and for the posts of chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of 12 ward committees.

The anti-defection law, which punishes individual MPs and MLAs for leaving one party for another, is not in force in the MCD.

Former Leader of the House and veteran councillor Mukesh Goel, who contested the February 5 Assembly election on an AAP ticket unsuccessfully, launched the new party. He told The Hindu that “centralised decision-making” was among the reasons he left the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.

In a statement, AAP blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for breaking away its councillors.

“Since the run-up to the [April 25] mayoral election, the BJP has been trying to poach our councillors by offering ₹5 crore to each. Even after the polls, the BJP has continued with its efforts because it doesn’t have the numbers for a majority in the Standing Committee or ward committees,” it added.

While the BJP did not issue any response to the allegations, Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh said the development “exposed the corruption and autocratic functioning within AAP”.

‘We failed the public’

In a statement issued earlier in the day, the 15 councillors said, “The party leadership was unable to run the municipal corporation smoothly. Due to our failure in fulfilling the promises made to the public, we are resigning from the primary membership of the party.”

Members of the IVP include Bankner ward councillor Dinesh Bhardwaj, Himani Jain from Vasant Vihar, Usha Sharma from Sadar Bazar, Sahib Kumar from Vikaspuri, and Rakhi Yadav from Hastsal.

Responding to AAP’s charges that the IVP was a “BJP operation”, Mr. Goel, a former Congress leader who joined AAP ahead of the December 2022 civic polls, said, “This is not true. We founded an independent party because we disagree with AAP as well as the BJP.”

The councillor from Adarsh Nagar added, “AAP leaders did a lot of drama about respecting me as a senior leader, but they did not give us the power to even take up small tasks.”