In a major setback to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the national capital, senior party leader and minister Kailash Gahlot resigned from the cabinet as well as the party on Sunday.

Gahlot, in his resignation letter to AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, mentioned the party’s political ambitions taking over from the commitment towards the people of Delhi that according to him, left many promises unfulfilled, as the reason for his move.

In the resignation letter, he also mentioned the sorry state of the river Yamuna. He said the AAP had promised to transform it into a clean river, but never got around to doing it. “Now, the Yamuna River is perhaps even more polluted than ever before,” the letter read.

Gahlot also cited controversies like the ‘Sheeshmahal’ that he said created doubts in people’s minds over AAP’s common man image as the reasons for his resignation.

The resignation letter shared by the politician shared on social media platform X read: “Another painful point has been the fact that instead of fighting for people’s rights, we have increasingly been fighting for our own political agenda. This has severely crippled our ability to even deliver basic services to the people of Delhi. It is now obvious that real progress for Delhi cannot happen if the Delhi government spends a major portion of its time fighting with the Centre.”

“I had started my political journey with the commitment to serve the people of Delhi and I want to continue doing that. Which is why, I find myself left with no option but to step away from AAP and hence I resign from primary membership of Aam Aadmi Party,” he wrote.

Other than his resignation letter to Kejriwal, Gahlot also wrote to CM Atishi, stating, “I hereby tender my resignation from the Council of Ministers GNTCD.”

Sources say the CM has accepted Gahlot’s resignation.

Gahlot has been with the AAP since its inception and has been an important minister in former CM Kejriwal and his successor Atishi’s cabinet. During his stint as a cabinet minister, Gahlot held portfolios that included Transport, Revenue, Law and Justice, Legislative Affairs, Information & Technology, and Administrative Reforms.

Fifty-year-old Gahlot, who represents the Najafgarh assembly constituency, has been a prominent leader of the AAP.

Meanwhile, several speculations are doing the rounds about his resignation. One of them is that he has resigned from the AAP under pressure from the BJP in matters related to probe agencies.