Appropriate action against Khaira at right time: Kejriwal

: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday that the party will take action deemed necessary against dissident leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira at the right time.

“My politics is not about Sukhpal Khaira. My politics is about the people of this country... about corruption-free India... about providing good education and hospitals,” he said in response to a barrage of questions about the dissident leader at a press conference here. Asked about the Bholath MLA’s reported remark that he did not want to ever utter Kejriwal’s name, the AAP national convener said: “I also want that he should not take my name.”

The remarks, which came in response to questions about factionalism and challenge thrown by Khaira to the party leadership, signalled deepening fissures among the two squabbling factions.

DISCIPLINARY ACTION LIKELY SOONER THAN LATER, STATE LEADERS TOLD TO ‘SHIFT FOCUS FROM ONE INDIVIDUAL TO ISSUES’

Till now, Kejriwal had only talked about sorting things out with the dissident group, comprising eight of the 20 party legislators, through dialogue.

Though he kept calling it an internal matter of the party, this is the first time the AAP chief has publicly spoken about action against the rebel leader, immediately triggering talks in the party circles about disciplinary action against Khaira in the next few days. Another indication was his message to state leaders in a luncheon meeting in which he met the AAP’s five candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that they should shift focus from one individual (Khaira) to issues of public importance.

In the past, the AAP leadership had been quick in suspending or throwing out those violating the party discipline.

After the meeting, Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, who had been advocating a patch-up lately, accused Khaira of violating party discipline. “He has become habitual. When he was in the Congress, Khaira used to speak against his party colleagues,” he told a TV channel. Asked about disciplinary action against the dissidents, he said there was no such discussion.