JOIN USOusted members of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) political affairs committee (PAC), Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, on Wednesday rebutted allegations of anti-party activities levelled against them by the party’s top brass.
The duo also raised questions about the “unilateral decisions” taken by party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
In a joint letter to volunteers, the two leaders gave a point-by-point clarification to all the allegations levelled against them by top brass of the AAP, including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Gopal Rai.
They, however, hoped to work for party unity in future as it was an “opportunity to strengthen” the AAP, saying the organisation was much bigger than any individual.
A set of emails relating to candidature selection by Bhushan, addressed to Kejriwal, Sisodia, Pankaj Gupta, Yadav, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Azad and Rai, were also released.
The emails, dated November 28, quotes Bhushan as saying that he will have to “disassociate” himself from the selection process and would be compelled to raise the issue on an “emergency basis” with the party’s national executive.
The two dissenting leaders found a ready support from an audio-tape released by former AAP MLA Rajesh Garg. In the tape, Kejriwal has been caught as suggesting a split in the Congress which could have helped him form the government for the second time.
Yadav and Bhushan claimed that Kejriwal favoured forming a government again in Delhi with the support of the Congress which they opposed, leading to a division in the party.
“Kejriwal was adamant on formation of government. We opposed this and insisted that it would send a very wrong signal among the volunteers across the country, as the Congress had recently been rejected by Delhi voters completely. However, Kejriwal went ahead with his efforts on formation of government and he continued till a month prior to elections,” reads the letter.
The leaders also rejected the allegation that they were releasing some very confidential communications, saying if they wanted they could have made public some secret papers which would have really harmed the party.
“It was also very strange that after the Lok Sabha elections, Sisodia, Singh and Ashutosh demanded that all members of the PAC should put in their papers so that Kejriwal could restructure it. Even demands were made to disband the national executive. So it was pertinent to oppose those unconstitutional moves,” the letter added.
They have also mentioned that Kejriwal overruled the majority view of the national executive that states should decide on contesting Assembly elections and decision was taken not to contest Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana.
Upset from the happenings in the party, Maharashtra unit convenor Anjali Damania first announced her resignation and then retracted within few hours.