Yogendra Yadav backs Arvind Kejriwal, says LG Najeeb Jung an agent of Centre for long

MEERUT: Former AAP member Yogendra Yadav, in Meerut to attend a dialogue on Swaraj organized by NGO Saroka, surprised the gathering there when he said on Saturday that he was "not surprised by what Delhi LG Najeeb Jung is doing because right from day one, he has acted as an agent of the Central government and occasionally as an agent of the ruling party".

Yadav, who earlier in the day interacted with farmers and is currently touring the entire country to apprise farmers of their rights, told TOI: "The AAP government has a valid point. Any elected government should have the power to transfer officers but the law is very ambiguous on this so the way to fight this is through laws, procedures, judiciary, and with political tact and patience. Unfortunately, what we witnessed is a very immature series of hasty actions which can prove counterproductive. I fear that by the end of this battle, the justified demand for full statehood for Delhi will recede back further."

The former party spokesman, who seemed to support Arvind Kejriwal in his bitter fight for turf with Jung, also said he "still believes that the AAP experiment has not failed and Kejriwal will continue to be remembered as principal architect of a surge against corruption". But the support, expectedly, wasn't unqualified. Yadav said, "I don't think the AAP experiment has failed though there is a sense of dejection, and of being let down.

But, if you look at it with some historic distance then it would be clear that this experiment has contributed a lot to the country's history. I may not be with AAP today. That doesn't matter. But we must acknowledge that this experiment introduced lot of fresh blood in Indian politics. It proved the party, which could not match big parties in terms of resources and muscle, could actually take them on."