AAP founding member Madhuri quits party

New Delhi: AAP's founding member and former diplomat Madhu Bhaduri, who was allegedly heckled at a meeting, today quit the party, alleging it does not "consider women as human beings".

"I am not with the party anymore. I have distanced myself from the party," Bhaduri, a member of the party panel to chalk its foreign policy, said.

Bhaduri alleged that she was heckled at a meeting of the party's National Council here on Friday for introducing a resolution condemning controversial Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti's role in a midnight raid in Khirki extension.

The AAP, however, rubbished the allegations.

Bhaduri, a former Ambassador to Portugal, said she had given a formal request to the party on January 23 for a resolution and that former Navy Chief Admiral (retd) Ramdas was also aware of it.

"On the day of the meeting, when the session was going on, I again went to Ramdas, who was speaking at that time and told him that I also wanted to speak.

I had hardly started speaking and introduced a resolution when I was heckled," Bhaduri claimed.

She said she is not angry, but "disappointed and disillusioned" with the party.

"I am not concerned with whether Bharti would be removed or not, my only concern is humanity and that women are also human beings... This party does not consider them as human beings," she said.

"There is no space for women. If the other women leaders have any self-respect, they will quit too," she added.

Bhaduri claimed that AAP is "desperate" to win as many seats as possible in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

She is the second prominent AAP leader to have openly expressed her dissent barely within a month of the party forming the government in Delhi after its stunning debut in the Delhi assembly elections.

Vinod Kumar Binny, an MLA from Laxminagar, was expelled by AAP after he described Kejriwal as a 'liar' and a 'dictator'. He has called for a 'dharna' against the AAP government.

Asked about the Bhaduri issue, senior party leader Ashutosh said she was the only member of the National Council who was called on the stage to put forth her views.

"She tried to put her views also. It is not always necessary that an individual's views are in the line with the party.

"She was a founder member of the party. Our sympathies are with her. Moreover, AAP respects women the most and they are an important part of the organisation. I feel she should not have acted in haste," he added.