Failing to live to the tag of Punjab’s main opposition party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making desperate attempts to gain the lost ground in Punjab specially after the recent rebellion by a group of eight party legislators against the party high command left the state unit divided into two factions openly opposed to each other.

This desperation ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls has become evident from AAP efforts to reach out to the AAP’s former Punjab convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur who was sacked on charges of taking bribe for allotting party tickets in August 2016, months before the February 2017 Assembly polls.

As AAP has fast lost its base in Punjab after Assembly polls, which saw emerge was main Opposition party ahead of Shiromani Akali Dal, party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed the state unit to make an effort to take back AAP’s former leaders and rebels.

Following this direction, top leaders of AAP Punjab met Chhotepur at his residence on Sunday night to persuade him to come back to the party.

These AAP leaders included Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema, AAP’s state unit co-president Balbir Singh and MLAs Baljinder Kaur and Meet Hayer.

“We have met Chhotepurji and we want him to come back in the party,” Cheema said here on Monday. “The discussion centred around coming together for the future of Punjab. The AAP is people’s choice as the SAD has been rejected by voters,” he added. Cheema said he was very positive about the meeting and discussion.

Chhotepur, however, said he could not forget what the party had done to him. “I asked them why they want me to return to the party which caused me immense pain…I was insulted. I cannot forget what the party did to me,” he said.

“I talked to them openly about the party’s functioning, like unnecessary interference (by the national leadership) in the state unit. I told them if they cannot take the corrective steps I suggested, then talks cannot go ahead,” Chhotepur added.

He said no talks were held about his returning to the party. “I have asked them (AAP leaders) to first explain my ouster from the party,” said Chhotepur who was sacked as Punjab convener of the AAP after a video clip surfaced allegedly showing him accepting money in exchange for poll tickets in a purported sting operation.

After his sacking, Chhotepur, who played vital role in building the party in Punjab, formed his own party, ‘Apna Punjab Party’, which unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly polls.