Praising Yogi, AAP Cancels Holidays on Birth Anniv of Eminent Personalities

New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has taken a leaf from Yogi Adityanath’s book and wants to strike down holidays observed on the birth and death anniversaries of eminent personalities.

In a series of tweets, Sisodia said on Friday that he has issued directions to the chief secretary to cancel such holidays.

He said the Uttar Pradesh government had taken a lead on this issue and the Delhi government should be prepared to learn from other states.

The move comes two days after the Aam Aadmi Party’s drubbing in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. It is also surprising because the AAP has constantly been at loggerheads with the BJP government at the Centre.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s barbs aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for wanting proof of his educational qualifications to the veracity of the surgical strikes are well-known.

The AAP is now in turmoil following back-to-back electoral defeats, first in the Punjab and Goa Assembly elections and now in Delhi. AAP leader Kumar Vishwas attributed the party’s defeat to lack of inner party democracy and a trust deficit with voters, as quoted in the media.

The party had initially blamed “faulty EVMs” alleging that they were rigged in favour of the BJP, but didn’t discuss the issue at length in its first stock-taking meeting after the election loss.

Kejriwal is meeting all AAP MLAs individually to take stock of what went wrong during the polls.

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