Arvind Kejriwal hints at Kapil Mishra replacement for Delhi Assembly polls

“Aur mai samajhta hu ki, peechli baar Kapil Mishra ke vajay se jo kami reh gayi, wo ab ye Durgesh saari kami aapki poori karenge,” Kejriwal said, addressing a gathering of people from unauthorised colonies in Karawal Nagar at his residence.

The process to regularise 1,797 unauthorised colonies in the city has gathered steam with the Centre drafting a Cabinet note, to which the AAP government has responded with suggestions.

On June 21, The Indian Express had reported that AAP might replace Mishra, who was suspended from the party in May 2017 due to “anti-party activities”, with Pathak.

Delhi is scheduled to go to polls in less than six months, with the term of the current legislative assembly expiring in February 2020. AAP had won 67 out of 70 seats in the 2015 Assembly polls.

Meanwhile, the AAP chief also hit out at the BJP for claiming credit for regularisation of colonies, which is home to an estimated population of 40 lakh.

“The BJP is claiming they got it done… What will we gain from this whole credit thing? AAP is responsible for what you could not do in the last 25 years… Take as much credit as you want,” Kejriwal said.

The issue of regularisation of unauthorised colonies has shaped the city’s political dynamics over the last few decades, with the promise of ownership rights over properties finding a prominence in parties’ manifestos.

“We are going to end this politics,” Kejriwal said, adding that regularisation will lead to a dramatic rise in property rates

Pathak, who came in touch with Kejriwal during the 2011 Jan Lokpal movement, is also the in-charge of the party’s organisation building team. The party had won 34 out of the 35 assembly constituencies he was in-charge of during the 2015 polls. Later, he was made the party’s joint Punjab in-charge, where it won 20 assembly seats in the 2017 polls.

Mishra did not respond to calls and messages seeking a comment.