Choudhary challenges AAP leaders for debate

Former bureaucrat-turned-BJP leader O P Choudhary on Friday threw an open challenge to AAP leaders for a face-to-face debate instead of raising baseless allegations against him.

Choudhary said the AAP is trying to gain political mileage out of such allegations.

Gopal Rai, Chhattisgarh in-charge of the AAP and minister in the Delhi government and Sanket Thakur, party state president, had alleged that Choudhary had committed irregularity in land allotment while he was the district collector of Dantewada.

AAP leaders told reporters here that one of the AAP office-bearers had approached the Chhattisgarh High Court over the irregularity and the court had noted that it was a case of a land scam, they said.

The AAP had also handed over a memorandum in this regard to the Election Commission.

Choudhary told DH that he cannot comment on the case as the matter is sub-judice. He said he had signed the application regarding the land deal but he was transferred out of Dantewada after three days. So what took place after his departure is not known, he added.

He further pointed out that he had taken some action against the land encroachment in the area and some local businessmen were peeved over the move. They had filed the PIL against the land deal, Choudhary said.