Gujarat AAP vice president Arjun Rathva resigns, claims local leaders not being involved in decision-making

Aam Aadmi Party's Gujarat unit vice president Arjun Rathva on Tuesday resigned from the post as well as the party, claiming local leaders were not being involved in the decision-making process. He said he has not made any plan yet about joining another party.

Rathva, the 50-year-old tribal leader from Chhotaudepur district, sent his resignation letter to Gujarat AAP president Isudan Gadhvi and state in-charge Sandip Pathak.

Through the letter, Rathva tendered his resignation from the post of Gujarat AAP vice president, as member of the party's National Council and also from the party's primary membership.


Rathva, a social worker from Chhotaudepur, joined the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP in 2013.

He unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls from Gujarat's Chhotaudepur seat in 2017 and 2022 as the AAP candidate. He also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Chhotaudepur parliamentary constituency, but faced defeat.

Talking to PTI, Rathva said he decided to quit AAP because its national leadership does not involve local leaders like him while taking decisions on the party's affairs in Gujarat.

"Since local leaders are not involved in the decision-making process, the AAP suffered loss in the 2022 state assembly elections. Though we were in a position to win at least 50 seats (out of the total 182 in Gujarat) in the last year's assembly polls, we could not perform well due to lack of planning at the ground level and lack of involvement of local leaders" Rathva claimed.

In the 2022 Gujarat assembly polls, the AAP opened its account for the first time by winning five seats in the state and finished third after the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.

"Despite our repeated requests, the party leadership has not conducted any evaluation of its defeat in Gujarat so far. How are we supposed to lead people at the local level in such a situation? Since the party leadership was not ready to listen, I have resigned with a heavy heart," Rathva said.