AAP leader Anjali Damania withdraws resignation, media reports

Mumbai: Aam Aadmi Party leader Anjali Damania withdrew her resignation hours after quitting the party on Thursday, TV channels reported.

The AAP earlier suffered a post-poll setback in Maharashtra when two senior leaders - Damania and state secretary Preeti Sharma-Menon - quit the party.

"Dear colleagues, with a heavy heart, I am ending my association with AAP," she said in her resignation message to top AAP office bearers here.

"My greatest regards for Arvind (Kejriwal), who is like an elder brother. All I want to request is that please do not have any conspiracy theories over my exit," Damania said.

The AAP state convenor added she had never compromised her values and would never do so.

"I request the media to respect my privacy," she said, while her phone remained switched off.

A former crusader against corruption in high places, Damania said she had nothing more to add except that she cared a lot for AAP and expressed her best wishes for it.

Reacting to the exit of the two AAP leaders, Mayank Gandhi told PTI that lack of communication at various levels and complaints against AAP committee members by party workers pushed Damania into tendering her resignation. "Minor organisational issues like complaints against the behaviour of committee members by AAP workers and lack of communication at various levels were irritating Anjali (Damania) and Preeti (Menon).

They could not focus on the major reasons for which they had joined politics. Hence, she decided to quit," Gandhi said. "We have been able to convince her that a structure will be created for organisational issues and she should focus on what she is good at (taking up corruption-related issues).

She (Damania) intends to meet all volunteers this evening to exhort them to refocus on our original goals of systemic change," Gandhi added.

Damania stood at the fourth position from Nagpur Lok Sabha seat during the recent election by securing 69,081 votes. Gadkari won from the seat, with 5,87,767 votes to his credit, by defeating seven-term MP Vilas Muttemwar of Congress.