'No Power Can Make Me Resign From Rajya Sabha Now': AAP MP Swati Maliwal

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Swati Maliwal said on Thursday (23 May) that she would have willingly given up her Rajya Sabha membership if the party had requested her to do so.

In an interview with news agency ANI, Maliwal responded to reports suggesting that AAP wanted her to relinquish her Rajya Sabha membership to make way for a 'certain lawyer', which might have possibly led to the party getting upset with her.

Maliwal said, "Had they asked me politely to give up my Rajya Sabha membership, I would have given my life. I have never been greedy or after any position."

Reflecting on her commitment to the party, Maliwal mentioned, "I gave up my engineering job to join these people in 2006 when no one knew them. I have worked on the ground and have run all kinds of operations all these years. I was absolutely the most important part of those two or three people. I would have resigned readily. I can work without any position."

Maliwal, the former chief of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), asserted that she would not resign now, "nor can any power make her give up the Rajya Sabha membership", given the treatment meted out to her by the party.

The former DCW chief expressed regret over what she described as her "character assassination" and "victim shaming," and voiced her determination to work even harder to exemplify what an 'ideal Parliamentarian' should be.

"Slowly and gradually, when ego takes over your head, you probably cannot see what is true, what is false, what is right, what is wrong," Maliwal emphasized.

She further commented on the party's internal dynamics, stating that she never thought a girl would be beaten first and then would be isolated with complete character assassination.

"I think everyone's ego has increased a lot but I believe that everything begins from the top," Maliwal added.

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