A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, AAP councillor Vijay Kumar from Trilokpuri said he will contest the poll for the Deputy Mayor’s post.
Mr. Kumar, along with two other AAP councillors, Ravinder Bharadwaj and Narendra Kumar, had filed his nomination for the Deputy Mayor’s post on Thursday.
AAP, which has publicly backed Ravinder Bharadwaj as its Deputy Mayor candidate, had on Thursday clarified that the party had fielded two extra candidates as “backups”. Hours later, Mr. Kumar, in a post on X, clarified that he would not be contesting the elections, which are scheduled for April 26.
“I am a soldier of [AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister] Arvind Kejriwal. I am with AAP and I will remain with AAP. I am not contesting the mayoral elections,” he had said in the now-deleted post.
However, Mr. Kumar released a video statement on Friday, retracting his former claim. “I have filed my nomination for the Deputy Mayor’s post. I will contest this election and win it. I request everyone not to put any pressure on me or my family,” he said.
“You [AAP] talk about democracy. But there is no democracy within the party,” he added.
In another post, Mr. Kumar termed the change of heart a “personal decision”, adding that it was “his job” to serve the public. In the post, he tagged senior party functionaries, including Finance Minister Atishi, Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, and the party’s MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak.
‘Deceitful trick’
AAP termed the development a “deceitful trick of the BJP”.
“We are fighting a demonic power called the BJP. They will try all sorts of tactics imaginable to unsettle us,” the party said in a statement.
“A true soldier of Arvind Kejriwal always believes in party discipline unwaveringly and will refuse to become a puppet of the BJP, regardless of all temptations,” it added.
The development comes days ahead of the crucial polls, which will prove to be the first electoral test of unity for AAP after the arrest of its chief in a money laundering case related to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
AAP’s nominees for Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts — Mahesh Khichi and Ravinder Bharadwaj, respectively — will fight against BJP candidates Kishan Lal and Neena Bisht.