Aam Aadmi Party appoints 6 'prabharis' for Maharashtra

Mumbai: Two weeks after it disbanded it's Maharashtra unit, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has appointed six in-charges, half of them Delhi MLAs, to look into the daily political affairs of the State, a decision that the local leaders said will ruin the outfit in Mumbai.

Party National Secretary Pankaj Gupta announced the names of the 'prabharis' on Wednesday and said they will build a "new and dynamic AAP Maharashtra structure" in coming days.

Three of them - Rituraj, Girish Soni and Rakhi Bidlan - are MLAs from Delhi, where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is in power.

Rituraj would look after Konkan and six districts of Vidarbha, while Bidlan has been made incharge of the remaining nine districts of the region in Eastern Maharashtra (Vidarbha has 11 districts, but the party has divided the region into 15 `districts' for administrative purpose). Another party leader Ashutosh would take care of MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region).

Soni will look after North Maharashtra, Rajiv Mishra Western Maharashtra, while Ishrad (AAP's minority wing secretary) will oversee the daily affairs of Marathwada.

Gupta said these `prabharis' would swing into action just after Diwail and travel in their respective regions to get themselves apprised with ground situation.

However, the appointments have not gone down well with AAP leaders in Maharashtra. AAP leader Mayank Gandhi, the face of the party in the State, said it was a sign of 'high command culture' creeping into the fledgling outfit.

"This is the high command culture that we came to fight. Now Maharashtra will be run by Delhi. How strange! The party could not find anyone from the state," he said on Friday.

The MLAs selected to oversee Maharashtra have been elected by Delhi voters to manage their constituencies and the State. Why are they coming to run Maharashtra? he asked.

Gandhi, who has revolted against the party leadership in the past also, said "this amounts to cheating the voters (of Delhi)" and the move will ruin AAP in the State.

"How will Delhi MLAs know about the ground situation (in Maharashtra)? This is high command culture at its worst. We seem to have absorbed the worst qualities of other mainstream parties," Gandhi said.

Another senior AAP leader, requesting anonymity said, "a large number of volunteers are hugely disappointed over dissolution of a well-performing State Executive Committee and have registered their protest in the party's internal forums."