Thirteen Aam Aadmi Party councillors in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi resigned from the party on Saturday and announced a new political outfit named the Indraprastha Vikas Party, reported The Indian Express.

With this, the Aam Aadmi Party’s tally in the municipal corporation has dropped to 100, while the Bharatiya Janata Party hold 117 seats. The Congress has eight councillors.

In a letter, the councillors who resigned told the Aam Aadmi Party leadership that they took the decision “due to failure to fulfil the promises made to the public”, according to The Indian Express.

Moralband councillor Hemanchand Goyal, who is set to lead the Indraprastha Vikas Party as an independent bloc within the municipal body, told PTI that no development work had taken place in the two and a half years since they were elected.

“The party was too busy with internal conflicts and blame games,” Goyal told the news agency. “We repeatedly raised our concerns with the leadership, but no one listened.”

One of the most notable leaders who defected from the Aam Aadmi Party is Mukesh Goel, who was the former leader of the House in the municipal corporation. He had joined AAP ahead of the 2022 civic elections. Under Goel’s leadership, many leaders had switched from Congress to AAP before the last municipal elections, Hindustan Times reported.

The resignations come weeks after the BJP won the mayoral polls in the capital on April 25.

Raja Iqbal Singh, the BJP’s leader of Opposition in the municipal corporation, was elected mayor after defeating Congress candidate Mandeep Singh by 125 votes. Singh received 133 votes, while Mandeep secured eight. Out of the 142 votes cast, one was declared invalid. The Aam Aadmi Party had chosen to boycott the election, The Indian Express reported.

This followed the Aam Aadmi Party’s defeat by the BJP in the Assembly elections in February.