In a major setback to the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, 15 councilors on Saturday resigned from the party and announced the formation of a separate faction. The rebel leaders include Mukesh Goel, who was the Leader of the House for AAP in the MCD

The new party will be named Indraprastha Vikas Party, with Mukesh Goel as its leader and the key councilors who resigned includes Hemchand Goyal, Himani Jain, Devendra Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Anil Rana and Suman among others.

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“We won on the AAP ticket and the party rose to power in the civic house in 2022. Despite this, the top leadership did not maintain any connection with the councilors and the party was not able to run the house properly,” they stated in a letter.

They added, “We could not fulfill the promises and due to this, we are resigning from the primary membership of the party.”

The jolt came just a month after the elections were held for the Delhi Municipal Corporation, in which the BJP emerged victorious. BJP and its councilor Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh became the new Mayor of Delhi and the saffron party returned to power in the civic house after two years.

He received 133 votes in the mayoral election, while the Congress candidate Mandeep got only eight votes. The Aam Aadmi Party boycotted the mayoral election and did not field a candidate.