Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

Give up PM ambitions: Mayank Gandhi to Kejriwal

- HT Correspond­ent htreporter­s@hindustant­imes.com

IN AN OPEN LETTER, GANDHI DESCRIBED AAP’S ROUT AS A ‘BODY BLOW TO ARROGANCE’

NEW DELHI: Former Aam Aadmi Party leader and a close aide of party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Mayank Gandhi has slammed the Delhi chief minister in an open letter on Wednesday, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looked set to complete hat-trick of its rule in the three municipal corporatio­ns in Delhi.

The results of the MCD elections were announced on Wednesday with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) facing a rout.

The letter, which Gandhi had posted on his blog and tweeted from his handle, addresses Kejriwal – the Hero and the Politician. Gandhi described the AAP rout as a “body blow to arrogance”.

“Arvind, the unselfish hero who would never compromise, was dead. In his place was a politician who wanted to manipulate that support to fuel his ambition to become a prime minister in 2019,” Gandhi wrote, referring to direction AAP took after the unpreceden­ted win in the 2015 assembly elections.

“We have out beaten other parties with our arrogance and internal politickin­g,” Gandhi wrote.

“You took complete power by becoming convener as well as CM of Delhi. How much more power do you want before you start delivering alternativ­e politics?,” the former AAP leader wrote.

“Abandon the agenda of wanting to be another BJP and Cong. We had come to fight them not become another version of them,” Gandhi said.

He advised Kejriwal to give up national ambitions and focus on Delhi.

“For now, forget your national ambitions and focus on governing Delhi well, that is your only chance of staying relevant. Stop dramas and blaming.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India