Former journalist Ashutosh resigns from AAP

In a massive development AAP member, spokesperson and former journalist, Ashutosh has resigned from the AAP for “very, very personal reasons”. Announcing his resignation, Ashutosh tweeted, “Every journey has an end. My association with AAP which was beautiful/ revolutionary also has an end. I have resigned from the PARTY/requested PAC to accept the same. It is purely from a very very personal reason. Thanks to party/all of them who supported me throughout. Thanks.” Ashutosh had a long career as a journalist before joining politics and was later associated with Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption (IAC) movement. Thereafter, he joined the AAP which had derived political mileage out of the anti-corruption movement. However, Ashutosh has not given any particular reasons as to why he resigned from the AAP and has stated, “To media friends. Please respect my privacy. I won’t be giving any byte of any kind. Please cooperate.” As per news reports and sources Ashutosh could even announce retirement from active politics.  

Ashutosh did not have a very smooth journey in the AAP, especially because his electoral career could never really get a start. His political career was marked by defeats and dejections. In 2014, he was fielded by the AAP against Dr. Harshvardhan from the Chandni Chowk constituency. However, he lost by a humungous margin of 4 lakh votes. The differences between Ashutosh and AAP political leadership surfaced and became public last year in the run up to the Rajya Sabha elections. As per reports, when Kejriwal had given the Rajya Sabha ticket to industrialist Sushil Gupta. Ashutosh had then expressed disapproval about the ticket being given to Sushil Gupta and made it clear that his conscience did not allow him to contest Rajya Sabha polls along with such a person. He also said that whether he gets Rajya Sabha ticket or not, he will not go to Rajya Sabha with Sushil Gupta. Kejriwal retaliated by sending Chartered Accountant N D Gupta to Rajya Sabha instead of Ashutosh. Ashutosh became subdued in political life thereafter. Speculations of his resigning from the AAP started doing the rounds and now these speculations seem to have materialised.

This clearly shows that Kejriwal is the narcissist of the worst kind. This is primarily the reason why Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Mayank Gandhi, Shazia Ilmi and Kumar Vishwas (almost) resigned from the party or were sacked. All these leaders were either the founding members of AAP or at least at the forefront of this supposedly clean party.

Ashutosh’s resignation was long in the offing and one cannot blame him for this. AAP has become a weak political player with a string of electoral defeats including Punjab polls, Goa elections and MCD elections. Apart from this, the AAP is also not going to be a part of the grand coalition and whatever little hopes off enjoying political power were left have also been dashed. No one wants to be a part of a sinking ship and therefore Ashutosh must have reached this decision. Moreover, one must also bear in mind that along with the dwindling fortunes of AAP, Ashutosh’s standing within the AAP has also reduced substantially. Once seen as someone close to Kejriwal, today he does not hold any official party position and has also been denied a Rajya Sabha ticket. He is a weak player in a weak party and no one would like to remain in such a position. Ashutosh clearly knew that AAP did not have a lot to offer and whatever little it had on offer was not being offered to Ashutosh. This may have been the “very, very personal reason” behind his resignation.