Alleging that Arvind Kejriwal was fooling them to fulfil his selfish interests, over 376 Aam Admi Party (AAP) volunteers and office bearers across the state submitted their mass resignation to the party’s state in-charge, Subhash Ware.In a show of support to expelled leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, state leaders and volunteers from various parts of the state gathered at the SM Joshi Memorial Hall in Pune on Monday, and indicated they may form a new political party.“As many as 350 volunteers and leaders resigned from AAP and this figure will go up when we start sensitising people about how democracy is being murdered in AAP,” said Maruti Bhapkar, an AAP founding member who is now on the party’s national executive committee.Bhapkar claimed most officebearers and activists are with them and have started an open dialogue with other party volunteers to convince them of their stand. “Called ‘Swaraj Samwad’, the movement may turn into a alternative to the AAP, but yet no decision is taken,” he said.“Those who resigned from the party are mostly national executive committee members, state conveners and co-conveners. More than 35 are office-bearers. The party had active members in over 19 districts, who will now be part of district committees of Swaraj Samwad, and could consider contesting local body polls,” says Manav Kamble, one of the first to quit the party.Seeking to downplay the resignations, state executive committee member Abha Muley said, “We have not received a single resignation yet, and we have to check whether they are really official members. The party has a strong unit in Maharashtra and is doing good work under the leadership of Kejriwal and Ware.”She added, “We don’t want to give importance to this resignation. Those working against the party have no moral right to speak about its ideology. These resignations will not have a negative impact.”