Former journalist and AAP leader Ashish Khetan. (File Photo) Former journalist and AAP leader Ashish Khetan. (File Photo)

Days after AAP leader Ashutosh quit the party, another member Ashish Khetan announced his decision to resign on Wednesday. Khetan, who had resigned from the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission back in April, said he had decided upon quitting active politics earlier in the year but postponed his decision since AAP and the Delhi government was beset with a series of crises.

“For the past two years, I have been plagued with self-doubt and the question of whether I wanted to continue in electoral politics. Early this year I made my decision to quit active politics after much deliberation and in consultation with family and close friends,” Khetan said in a Facebook post.

Khetan sent his resignation to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on August 15, the same day Ashutosh had announced his departure from the party, PTI reported. However, both resignations are yet to be accepted by Kejriwal.

Khetan, who is also a journalist like Ashutosh, said his focus would now be on legal practice. “I have taken up legal causes in the larger public interest and will continue to do so. Besides practicing law, I am also keen to return to my writing,” he said.

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, PTI reported.

However, Khetan clarified that his decision to quit was not linked to any desire for any seat and he had received love and respect from the party and its members. “My personal decision to move away from the party and electoral politics, should not be viewed as a reflection on AAP, in any way whatsoever. I would also like to quell the unfortunate rumours that my decision is linked to any desire for any seat,” Khetan said.

The leader said, in fact, the party had asked him to contest upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “But I had politely turned it down. Contesting one more election would have further entrenched me in the world of politics, something I don’t want at this point in time,” he said.

Opposition parties took the opportunity to hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party as Ashish Khetan and Ashutosh quit the party in a span of a week, saying that it marks a decline in the charisma of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“Arvind Kejriwal is onetime wonder whose charisma is fast losing its sheen among the people of Delhi and the leaders of his own party. It now appears that by the time of next Vidhan Sabha elections in 2020, the Aam Aadmi Party will vanish from the political horizon,” Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said in a statement.

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) also slammed the AAP’s national convenor, with its chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee saying, “Within 6 years of forming the party, most of the old guards, founding members of AAP have left. Obviously something is terribly wrong within the party.”

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