Rebel AAP MLA Vinod Binny to join Mamata and Anna for LS polls?

Another former soldier of Arvind Kejriwal, Vinod Kumar Binny is going to join Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party. Binny, a rebel AAP MLA, quit the party after accusing Kejriwal and his party of backtracking on their poll promises to the people of Delhi. TMC sources have revealed that Binny, who beat heavyweight congress leader AK Wala by a huge margin in the Lakshmi Nagar constituency is all set to join the party following Anna Hazare’s decision to support Mamata Bannerjee’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. According to party sources, Binny met TMC Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien, and chief campaigner Vinod Singh in Delhi last week. [caption id=“attachment_1421425” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] “Not only Binny but several AAP former and current AAP members have contacted us with the intention of joining the party,” a TMC spokesperson told Firstpost. “The names includes the likes of Syeed Siddiqui, an AAP MLA, Mohammad Salim the CPM candidate from Chandni Chowk assembly constituency and Maulana AB Ashrafi, another Muslim leader, who was once close to Arvind Kejriwal”. Vinod Binny, however, refrained from confirming whether he is joining Mamata Bannerjee before the Lok Sabha polls, which are due to begin on 9 April. However, a few days earlier, he head told the media that he supports the Mamata- Anna team up. “The corruption of the Congress party and AAP’s bluffing have only one alternative and that is Mamata Banerjee,” Binny had said. According to party sources Binny might end up getting a Lok Sabha ticket in Delhi from TMC. Significantly, one of the main reasons that Binny reportedly left AAP was because he was denied a Lok Sabha ticket. At the time that the rift between Binny and AAP first surfaced, party convener Arvind Kejriwal had said that Binny had asked him for a Lok Sabha ticket, a charge that Binny later denied. “Vinod Kumar Binny had come for minister’s post in December. I denied him that post. Then he said he will contest the Lok Sabha polls. But the party has decided not to give a Lok Sabha ticket to any sitting MLA,” Kejriwal said. But even though Anna’s presence in the party is attracting people like the rebel AAP MLA who don’t want to lose their ‘anti-corruption’ poll standing , the TMC may still lose ground in its campaign to charm the Muslims in the capital, given that the imam of the Jama Masjid S Bukhari, who has been close to Banerjee, has declined to join the TMC’s campaign, sating that the inclusion of Anna would hurt the sentiment of the Muslims. Bukhari had reportedly said that he was uncomfortable with Anna’s close links to the BJP and its religious politics. Bukhari is also the brother of Tariq Bukhari, an eminent member of the Sachar Committee.