AAP criticised for renting Lalu aide's house

Buoyed by its success in the Delhi Assembly elections, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has decided to test waters in Bihar too. It has invited applications from professionals with clean image to become members of the AAP.

However, the beginning has not been auspicious. The party has courted controversy over the office it has opened in the state capital. The residence it has taken on rent to run the AAP office actually belongs to former  Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) minister Ramdeo Singh Yadav.

Yadav was elected MLA from Munger and served as Cooperative Minister in Lalu Prasad regime in mid-90s. Many AAP supporters were aghast and asked how could their party, which boasts of anti-corruption and anti-criminal, make a new beginning from the residence of a Lalu aide.

“On the one hand,  the AAP talks of cleansing the system by weeding out corrupt and criminal elements. On the other hand, it has taken the house of a controversial leader on rent for office purpose. This will malign the AAP’s image,” said an AAP supporter, who did not wish to be named.

But A P Singh, the AAP leader, who has entered into a lease agreement with Yadav, said there was nothing wrong in it.

“We have taken Yadav’s house on the ground floor on rent. Yadav is so impressed with the AAP that he has leased out the accommodation for a token rent of Re 1 per month. Besides, we will run the office, not Yadav. Nor will he interfere just because he is our landlord,” assured Singh.

But neighbours of Yadav still rue that the AAP should have opted for any other rented accommodation.

“ The AAP is known for honesty and zero tolerance towards crime and corruption. What was the need to hire the house of a RJD leader who used to criticise even his own mentor. There were many Patnaites who would have loved to offer their residence on rent to the AAP,” lamented S K Singh of SK Nagar, the locality where the AAP office has been opened.