Former Delhi Congress president Anil Chaudhary on Monday slammed senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia for deciding to contest from Jangpura Assembly constituency instead of Patparganj seat, saying, he “ran away” from the people’s court of the constituency as they won’t spare him in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Former deputy chief minister has been moved to Jangpura constituency and the AAP has fielded educationist Awadh Ojha, who recently joined the party from the said seat. Sisodia has represented this constituency thrice.
Reacting to Sisodia being shifted to the Jangpura from Patparganj, Chaudhary said, “When Sisodia came back from jail, he said that we will go to the public’s court. I thought that he would go to the public court of Patparganj. But, he ran away from the court of the people of Patparganj.”
“Sisodia tried to justify that he has done a lot of work in Patparganj. Then why did he leave Patparganj ? It would have been better if he would have contested the elections in the people’s court of Patparganj,” he told The Statesman.
The former Congress MLA from Patparganj alleged that there was no development in the constituency under his tenure as an MLA.“He knew that the public would not spare him this time. So he has left Patparganj. He failed to address the problems of the constituency. There is zero development,” he said.
Referring to the alleged liquor scam, Chaudhary accused Sisodia of favouring those associated with the party and ignoring the development of the constituency.
Taking a jibe at AAP for denying tickets to over a dozen of sitting MLAs, he said the party should tell the public on what basis they were denied tickets and Sisodia, who returned from jail was given the ticket.
“AAP has cut tickets of 13 existing MLAs. On what basis they were denied tickets, AAP should tell the public. Some of them even did not go to jail. But Sisodia who returned from jail got the ticket,” he remarked.
On Ojha contesting from Patparganj, Chaudharay said, “He has nothing to do with Patparganj. The main thing is that if a former deputy chief minister is vacating the seat, that means the AAP is losing there. He has been made a scapegoat.”