New Delhi: Controversy erupted after an alleged AAP supporter was noticed showering money in celebration of the victory of party candidate Nandkishore Beniwal in the Delhi Cantonment Board elections.
Distancing itself from the incident, the party initially said that it would suspend those involved in the incident, but later said that the person throwing money was not a party volunteer.
The party, which won only one of the eight seats, also sought to down play the Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB) polls saying it did not reflect the mood of the people as the issues were not linked to whole of Delhi.
"We have figured out that the person throwing money was not from our party. He is a government employee, who was throwing money during the celebrations," said commando Surinder Singh, former legislator and AAP's candidate from Delhi Cantt. Party spokesperson Atishi Marlena said that the person has been "suspended" from the party.
"The idea is to send a message to the party volunteers that such a behaviour will not be tolerated. We have asked Surinder Singh to identify the person. If he turns out to be a volunteers, then we will take a strict action and suspend him. "If not, then we want to send a message to such people to stay away from the party," Marlena said.
Beniwal also said neither did he know the person nor did the person belong to party.
"I was busy inside the counting centre. I only came to know about it from the media," said Beniwal, who won by 456 votes. The BJP won five seats, Congress two and AAP one. The results were significant considering the fact that Delhi Cantt was represented by Singh and the party's claim that its graph in Delhi was rising as against the BJP.
"This should not be looked as a judgment for Delhi. The issues here are different and more importantly, our party has an agenda for the whole of Delhi," Singh added.
