Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yogendra Yadav on Saturday said the party is saddened by Shazia Ilmi's decision to quit the AAP, but added that the party is hopeful that she might reconsider her decision.
"We are saddened by her decision to quit. We will miss her. We tried to convince her, but could not succeed in it. But, we are hopeful that she will reconsider her decision to quit," said Yadav.
"Shazia Ilmi was one of the founding members of the AAP. Even before the party was formed, she has been an important part of the revolution. She contested elections also, and even after that, she played a pivotal role in the party's campaign for the Lok Sabha elections," he added.
"She was upset for the past couple of days. She had even placed her grievances in front of us in the national executive meeting. She wrote letters and talked to some of the party members. We had told that her grievances are valid and will solve them. We had long discussions regarding her problems," he said.
Yadav also said the party will take a note of the issues raised by Shazia, and added that the party also strongly feels there is a need for deep introspection.
Earlier, Shazia Ilmi officially declared that she was resigning from the party, citing lack of inner-party democracy within AAP.
Addressing a press conference, she said, "Feel sad in saying that I am resigning from the AAP."
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She charged her party of failing in inner-party democracy, "AAP did a lot to change national political discourse, but it lacked inner party democracy. I find it amazing that we cannot follow principles of Swaraj in our own party. I raised questions on ticket distribution in the party (AAP) and the roles given to different leaders."
Her resignation comes at a time when the party led by Arvind Kejriwal has been remanded to Tihar Jail till June 6 by a court on charges of a defamation case filed by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.
"I feel the party (AAP) is not moving in a good direction, I see no hope. I hope my departure makes them introspect," she added.
Shazia also advised her party to change tack of doing agitational politics.
"Fasts and demonstrations were helpful earlier on but now they are not, people don't like it," she said.
She charged the AAP with ignoring her in the party although she maintained that she had the greatest respect for Kejriwal and his supporters.
She said: "Arvind has shot the messenger, I was consistently sidelined in the party. I still have the greatest of respect for Arvind and the numerous volunteers."
Although Shazia resigned from the AAP, she made it clear that she was not joining any other party.