Punjab AAP leaders write to Kejri, want Chhotepur sacked

CHANDIGARH: Top leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab on Thursday demanded that state unit convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur be “sacked” over media reports of his “accepting bribe”. In a letter addressed to national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, 21 leaders — including MPs Bhagwant Mann and Sadhu Singh, and heads of various wings — have asked the AAP’s political affairs committee (PAC) to immediately replace Chhotepur with an “honest” man. The PAC is meeting on Friday evening.

The AAP has been contemplating action against Chhotepur for taking a packet of cash in a reported video sting operation carried out by a party supporter, though the letter does not expressly mention the video, which was the very starting point of the current crisis in the rookie party.

Chhotepur is likely to be replaced by AAP’s state legal wing chief Himmat Singh Shergill, and may even be expelled from the party, barely six months before the assembly elections are due.

Thursday’s letter — released to the media by AAP — came within hours of Chhotepur announcing that he will hold a press conference on Friday on how “some persons within the party are trying to tarnish my image”.

Reported first by HT, the sting video purportedly shows a person leaving a packet of cash with Chhotepur. Claiming that it was made only to embarrass him and had nothing incriminating, Chhotepur justified his collecting cash, saying it was routine gathering of “party funds” for running day-to-day affairs. However, a top, Delhibased leader of the party had briefed some journalists on Wednesday that the video was made by an AAP supporter, and that it was “incriminating enough” to provide direct evidence of Chhotepur indulging in corruption. Action against him will follow soon, the leader had said. The party, however, refused to make the video public.