Rao's change of heart, ideology shocking, disappointing: AAP chief

Ex-top cop fought and exposed the saffron party for almost a year: Prithvi Reddy

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: With former party colleague Bhaskar Rao quitting the Aam Admi Party(AAP) and joining the BJP on Wednesday, AAP Karnataka president Prithvi Reddy expressed his “shock and disappointment” over his move and more so as Rao had been 'fighting and exposing' the saffron party for almost a year.

Rao, who once served as Bengaluru police commissioner, and more recently as AAP manifesto committee chairman, joined the saffron party in the presence of Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel at the party office on Wednesday. Reddy said that he had been blindsided by Rao’s exit.

“Quite honestly, we are shocked and disappointed, but to each one their own. Everyone has their own calling. He is a person who has stood by us for almost a year and for him to have joined the BJP is disappointing,” he said. The former top cop had joined AAP in April last year in the presence of party national convener Arvind Kejriwal. He added that he hadn’t had a chance to speak with Rao.

“He (Rao) said we are not transparent and controlled by a few people but that can’t be the reason for you to change your political ideology. I mean, differences of opinions are there in every household,” he said.

Rao was AAP's Basavangudi candidate Reddy confirmed that Rao had been the AAP candidate for Basavangudi constituency but insisted that the party hadn’t suffered a setback in Karnataka since they were a cadre-based organisation that banked on ground work.

“We have always fought on the basis of two things. One is the work we have done in the past eight years in Delhi and a year in Punjab. Secondly, we fight based on people power and the structure we have built over the past year, bottom up from the booth,” he said.

Not like Cong MLAs going over: Reddy The AAP leader defended his party for attacking Congress over their lawmakers joining the BJP, adding that Rao jumping over to the saffron party is not the same since he was not an elected representative. “Once you win with a certain party, cheating the voter is not right,” Reddy said. “I’m glad it (Rao joining BJP) happened earlier rather than later,” he added

Reddy disclosed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is coming down to Davangere on March 5 for the party’s convention, will no longer take part in a roadshow in Hubballi as planned since former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s bail hearing is on March 4.

“On the fourth, there is the bail hearing of Manish and the whole programme was in jeopardy but he is still coming because he is committed,” he said. “We were supposed to do a roadshow and things like that, which he will no longer be doing,” the AAP leader said, adding that Kejriwal would be in Karnataka for five to six hours