AAP’s fissures spill out at Chandigarh MC House meeting
Two AAP factions battle it out over allotment of mechanised cleaning of Chandigarh’s southern sectors to Lions Company
In a major embarrassment to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the simmering factionalism in the party burst out into the open on Saturday when a section of its councillors supported the BJP-led MC agenda on mechanised sanitation of southern sectors, while another section, led by its leader of opposition, voted against it.
At the MC General House meeting on Saturday, heated arguments erupted between the two AAP factions on the issue of allotment of mechanised cleaning of the southern sectors (31 to 60) to the Lions Company.
The leader of opposition, Yogesh Dhingra, vehemently opposed the move, and demanded that it be taken up in a special House meet.
But at the same time, another AAP faction, led by its councillor Prem Lata, gave arguments in favour of the allotment, while siding with the BJP councillors.
Raising objections to the contract, Dhingra said, “The performance of the company has been very poor. The Resident Welfare Associations in the area are also not in favour of giving contract to the company. They say even they can do a better job than the firm in cleaning the area.”
Interrupting Dhingra, Lata questioned, “When RWAs cannot manage the parks properly , how can they manage the roads’ sanitation?”
Similarly, while the Dhingra-led faction alleged that contract workers under the project were not being paid properly, the other faction retorted that the delay in awarding the contract was delaying payment of salaries.
Dhingra even went over to convince the other AAP faction, but they didn’t relent.
Voting for and against
While the Congress councillors were also demanding a deferment of the agenda and submission of tender’s technical details, Dhingra asked the mayor for holding a vote on it.
Agreeing to his demand, mayor Sarbjit Kaur Dhillon asked for hands to be raised by those in favour. Along with all 13 BJP councillors and a lone SAD councillor, five AAP councillors also voted in favour of the agenda, which was announced passed by the mayor, with 19 of the 35 votes in the House voting for it.
Talking to the media later, Chandigarh Congress president Subhash Chawla alleged that while the AAP claimed to be an honest party, they sold their votes in favour of the company.
Chandigarh AAP president Prem Garg said, “There was a lack of coordination among the councillors. The agenda came only last night. We will talk to them. There is no factionalism in the party.”
Simmering factionalism
Fighting its first MC elections in Chandigarh last year, the AAP had surprised many by becoming the single-largest party with 14 councillors in the House of 35. The BJP had managed to secure 13 seats, the Congress seven and the Shiromani Akali Dal one.
Even before the elections, there was major dispute within the AAP over distribution of tickets. Picking a candidate for the mayor’s post again created major friction, which resulted in the party losing the mayor and senior deputy mayor posts by one and two votes, respectively.
Councillors demand more say
Attacking the “bureaucracy’s domination” in MC, cutting across party lines, several councillors demanded greater say of councillors in MC’s functioning rather than administration and MC officials. They took particular offence to the MC commissioner stating that technical terms and conditions of a tender are set by the technical committee as per laid-down government manuals.
BJP councillor Kanwarjeet Rana made a scathing attack on the bureaucracy, stating, “What’s the need of the House and councillors? Let the adviser run the MC when we are ignored in important decisions.”