M S Dhir: ‘Poor’ House work. M S Dhir: ‘Poor’ House work.

More than two weeks after communal riots erupted in the area, the Aam Aadmi Party is set to drop Trilokpuri MLA Raju Dhingan from its list of candidates for the impending Delhi Assembly polls.

He has got the sack for his poor handling of the violence that lasted three days, party sources said.

Dhingan is one of the six sitting AAP MLAs who will find their names missing from the first list of candidates to be revealed by the party early this week. The other high-profile omission is Jangpura MLA Maninder Singh Dhir, who was nominated to the post of Speaker of the Delhi Assembly after the polls in December 2013.

Sources in the party said that while the feedback on Dhingan’s tenure as MLA of Trilokpuri was acceptable, the party believed that he had not been able to handle the crisis effectively. “Though nobody is saying that Raju Dhingan played a part in the riots, the feedback team has pointed to deficiencies in the aftermath of the riots. He did not seem too visible at a time when people of the area needed support. He lost ground because of his seeming inaction,” a leader said.

Members of the party said that the leadership was also angered by Dhingan’s delay is visiting those who were admitted to hospital. “In the aftermath of a riot, there are many things that can be done to calm the situation down and bring help to the people of the area. That did not happen,” a leader said.

Dhir is set to lose his seat because of a combination of factors, including feedback from his constituency, but more importantly, due to his performance as Speaker of the Delhi Assembly. “A criticism of Dhir was his handling of the Assembly on February 14. The party had asked him to deal with the proceedings of the house firmly, but things went slightly out of hand. His performance as an area MLA has also not been very good,” a leader said.

Continuing from the processes used for candidate selection in December 2013, the party has formed district committees which undertake a feedback process before submitting their reports to the leadership for a final call. These district committees have people who hail from other districts in the city, in order to make the review process unbiased, a leader said.

The first list will have between 30 and 35 names, leaders said. Rajesh Garg and Harish Khanna, MLAs from Rohini and Timarpur respectively had already indicated their doubts about contesting in the past week. While Garg said he was tied up with several court cases, Khanna said he was disappointed with his opinion “not being valued” in the party.

Last MLA from Patel Nagar, Veena Anand, is another one unlikely to make the list, sources said.

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