New Delhi: On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadami Party boss Arvind Kejriwal tendered an apology to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, according to ANI. In a letter he wrote: “I have nothing personal against you. I regret the same. Let us put the incident behind us and bring the court proceedings to a closure."
Kejriwal and Nitin Gadkari have filed a joint application seeking to withdraw the defamation case in Delhi's Patiala Court. The application comes after Kejriwal submitted a letter regretting making defamatory remarks against Gadkari.
Kejriwal also apologised to Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
Kejriwal's letter to Majithia drove a wedge between the party's state and national units with Punjab AAPM MLA demanding that the state unit ought to have immunity.
The remark came after MP Sangrur Bhagwant Mann resigned as the party's Punjab chief after AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal apologised for accusing SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia for being involved in the drugs trade.
Kejriwal's move landed the state leadership in a crisis and it had contemplated breaking away and forming a separate unit.
The legislator also said he had been seeking autonomy for the Punjab unit for the past three months and that he had shared the letter with the state's leaders, including Mann.
"In real the sense, an autonomy should be full autonomy which means that the state unit should have its own constitution, own membership, structure, funding and manifestoes. We will also have our own president and own working committee," Sandhu said.
The MLA had written to Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia in December.
The central point of this letter is that the national unit of the party and state units function in an autonomous manner, he said.
The advantage of the distinct nature of national and state entities of the party would be that while their fortunes are not linked, they would gain from each other but not suffer on each other's account, Sandhu had written.
Notably, senior AAP leader H S Phoolka asked state legislators to seek "autonomy" rather than going for a separate party "in the best interest of Punjab".
"In best interest of Pb, my suggestion to Pb AAP MLAs- demand autonomy, not a separate party. AAP Punjab should function as a regional party with a alliance with national AAP. In Punjab matters, total independence and on national issues, go by National leadership (sic)," Phoolka today tweeted.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's apology to an SAD leader for accusing him of drugs trade pushed the party's Punjab unit into a crisis as the state leadership contemplated breaking away and forming a separate unit, saying the "meek surrender" was painful and very unfortunate.
His apology to an SAD leader for accusing him of drugs trade pushed the party's Punjab unit into a crisis as the state leadership contemplated breaking away and forming a separate unit, saying the "meek surrender" was painful and very unfortunate.
Kejriwal's apology to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia triggered upheaval in the state unit as AAP's Punjab unit president Bhagwant Mann and co-president Aman Arora resigned from their posts.Mann tweeted, "I'm resigning as a president of AAP Punjab... but my fight against drug mafia and all kind of corruption in Punjab will continue as an "Aam Aadmi" of Punjab (sic)." In a further jolt, the Lok Insaf Party (LIP), AAP's ally in the state, announced to break its alliance with the party in the wake of Kejriwal's apology.
"We have announced to break our alliance with the AAP. We cannot be associated with a party whose main leader meekly surrendered by tendering apology to former minister Bikram Singh Majithia," LIP leader and MLA Simrjeet Singh Bains said.
AAP state unit leaders also said they were now facing allegations whether Kejriwal had entered into an understanding with the Shiromani Akali Dal by tendering apology to Majithia in a defamation case.Kejriwal also earned the wrath of the ruling Congress and SAD-BJP leaders, who accused him of being in the habit of making false allegations against his opponents to garner votes.
