Core member Sandeep Pathak’s exit from AAP deals biggest blow to party

New Delhi: When AAP announced its nominees for Punjab Lok Sabha 2022, the focus was not on Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Mittal or cricketer Harbhajan Singh, but on relatively unknown Sandeep Pathak. Pathak has stayed out of the public eye since joining the party in 2016, his low profile in stark contrast to his growing influence among AAP’s core leadership.The defection of seven RS MPs to the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday rocked the 14-year-old party, while Pathak’s exit has raised the deepest concerns within its ranks.

Party leaders said while the departures of Raghav Chadha and Swati Maliwal, who were estranged from the leadership, were expected, Pathak’s move was unexpected. “The ED’s raids on Ashok Mittal’s business establishments and residence prepared us for his possible departure. Other businessmen too appear to have taken pre-emptive measures. Others, like Harbhajan, are not very active in the party. Pathak is an outlier. He is not just another MP. He has been part of the AAP core team since at least 2018,” a party worker said.Also read: Chadha and 6 other Lok Sabha MPs resign to join BJP, dealing major blow to AAPFour of the defectors – Mittal, Harbhajan, Vikram Sahni and Rajinder Gupta – had no contact with the AAP before its predecessor, the Indian Anti-Corruption Organization, or the party before it became a political force. Their nominations at the expense of those involved in the anti-corruption campaign have sparked debate, with many noting that they are vulnerable to overtures by their rivals.Pathak, who was appointed national general secretary in 2022 and is also a member of the AAP’s political affairs committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, is widely regarded as a key strategist in the party’s victory in Punjab. His journey began with a meeting with Ashish Khetan at the Delhi Dialogue Committee and later earned the trust of Arvind Kejriwal through his electoral probe work in Punjab and Gujarat. He was so close to Kejriwal that he was one of three people – Sunita Kejriwal and Bibhav Kumar – who were allowed to meet him in jail,” said a former party official.AAP sources said Pathak’s shift to the BJP was a result of his father’s association with the party. “His father is a party member in Chhattisgarh. His roots are there,” sources said.