India News | I Am Not Going Anywhere: AAP's Dilip Pandey Amid Speculation About Rift with Party
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. AAP leader Dilip Pandey on Monday rejected the speculation that he was upset with the party over his exclusion from its list of candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls and said he was not going anywhere.
New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) AAP leader Dilip Pandey on Monday rejected the speculation that he was upset with the party over his exclusion from its list of candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls and said he was not going anywhere.
In a letter shared on X, the AAP's chief whip in the assembly said he decided to speak up as assumptions could be made based on his silence.
The AAP released its second list of 20 candidates for the Delhi polls on Monday, dropping 18 sitting MLAs, including Pandey. This came days after the Timarpur MLA hinted on Friday that he might be denied a ticket for the polls due to be held in February next year.
The party has fielded Surendra Pal Singh Bittu, who recently quit the BJP, from Timarpur.
"Yesterday I saw that suddenly a campaign has started in which directly or indirectly an attempt is being made to give the message that I am full of dissatisfaction and anger towards the party or my leader Arvind ji.
"On reading this, I laughed at first and felt like ignoring it. But many assumptions can be made about my silence, so I have to write this...," Pandey said in his letter in Hindi.
"I am not going anywhere," he said, adding that he started as a common AAP worker and went to jail for the party before entering the assembly.
Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia reposted Pandey's letter on X.
"The relationship between Arvind Kejriwal and his team is beyond the position, money and prestige of traditional politics. Those whose politics is limited to these can never understand this," the former deputy chief minister said.
In the 2015 and 2020 elections, the AAP won 67 and 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly respectively.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)