He had joined party in July 2018 and was appointed unit’s president in October

The Aam Aadmi Party Delhi unit’s Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes wing president, Karam Singh Karma, resigned from the post and membership of the party on Saturday, citing “corruption”.

He had joined the AAP in July 2018 and was appointed the president of the Delhi unit’s SC/ST wing in October. In his resignation letter, he wrote that he had joined the party after finding it to be “clean and honest”.

But, he said, he found that corruption was prevalent, leading him to tender his resignation.

‘Community ignored’

When asked what he was referring to in his letter, Mr. Karma said the Valmiki community had been “ignored” by AAP government and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He alleged that the recently-launched Delhi government scheme to assist safai karamcharis to switch to mechanical sewer cleaning had not benefited “anyone from the Valmiki community”.

Delhi SC/ST Department Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam denied the allegation, stating that of the 200 sewer cleaning machines procured in the scheme, nine had gone to family members of those who had died while cleaning sewers and 65 to those engaged in manual cleaning of drains etc.

“The AAP government is the only one in the country that has brought out such a scheme to uplift the Valmiki community...Mr. Karma had wanted the AAP ticket from North-West Delhi so perhaps that is why he is saying this,” said Mr. Gautam.

AAP had announced candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats, including Guggan Singh for North West Delhi, earlier this month.