New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashish Khetan has quit the party, AAP sources said today, a week after another leader, Ashutosh, announced his resignation.
Khetan, who did not deny the resignation, said he was not involved in “active politics at the moment” and was not interested in rumours.
According to sources in the party, Khetan had sent his resignation to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on August 15.
It was the day Ashutosh had announced his resignation from the party.
Both resignations are yet to be accepted by Kejriwal, party insiders said.
“I had resigned from DDC in April, to join the legal profession. That is all. Not interested in rumours,” Khaitan tweeted, referring to the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission, an advisory body of the Delhi government.
“I am completely focussed on my legal practice and not involved in active politics at the moment. Rest is all extrapolation,” he said in another tweet.
Khetan had resigned as DDC vice chairman citing “frustration” due to the tussle between the Centre and the AAP-led government.
AAP sources claimed Khetan wanted to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the New Delhi parliamentary seat that he had lost to BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi in 2014. But his demand was not being accepted by the leadership and he had been upset for a while.
Both Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan were seen as being close to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Some have said that the party’s Rajya Sabha nominations are the reason behind a number of senior leaders quitting the party in the recent past. On January 3 this year, AAP had nominated Sushil Gupta and Narayan Das Gupta over senior party leaders for Rajya Sabha seats. At that time, several people had questioned the party’s decision. Anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania had then cautioned about an impending “mass exodus” from the party.
(With PTI inputs)