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The infighting within the Aam Aadmi Party is taking one ugly turn after another. The party is currently holding a meet at Kapashera on the outskirts of New Delhi to decide the fate of its two founder members – Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan -- who are now being branded as rebels against party chief Arvind Kejriwal.
The meeting is expected be chaired by AAP’s senior leader Kumar Vishwas after party's internal Lokpal, Admiral Ramdas, has been asked not to attend the ongoing national council meet.
"I received a letter from Admiral Ramdas informing that he has been asked to not attend the meeting. He had said that the party's general secretary has stopped him from coming to the meeting. He is very sad for this," Yadav said.
"The party had called him in every meeting and he had specially come for the meeting. The way all the MLAs are called for the meeting, Lokpal can also be called," he added.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal is attending the meet and is likely to address the national council but won't wait for vote.
Meanwhile, Yadav had refused to attend the meeting and was holding protests outside the venue along with other AAP national council members, who were denied entry. But he later changed his mind and said, “I will raise my concerns at the meeting.”
Kejriwal's supporters held a protest against Yadav and Bhushan outside the venue for the party's national council meeting.
The protesters were shouting slogans denouncing the duo and were displaying placards with messages such as "traitors won't be tolerated", "our convener Arvind Kejriwal" and "throw traitors out of the party".
Yadav, however, expressed his disappointment at the protest by his own party workers, saying he had never expected that such a day would come.
"I never thought such a day would come that my own party workers will raise slogans against me. A social movement was started for this? Look at these posters, volunteers using words like 'gaddar', 'murdabad', it is very unfortunate," Yadav said.
Ahead of the meet AAP leader Sanjay Singh said that taking into view the present scenario, a break up within the party cannot be ruled out. "Taking into view present scenario, we cannot rule out the breaking up of AAP. We made serious efforts to resolve issues and agreed on all of their terms," Singh told ANI.
His colleague and party spokesperson Ashutosh said everything will be accounted for in the party's national council meeting. "Everything will be accounted for, tough questions will be asked, who were the people who conspired for the defeat of the party," he said.
The internal rift within the party had widened after Yadav and Bhushan were accused of working for the party's defeat during the Delhi assembly polls last month.
The party has also been rocked by a sting featuring an alleged telephonic conversation between Kejriwal and AAP leader Umesh Singh. In their discussion, Kejriwal reportedly used strong language against Yadav and Bhushan and threatened to quit the AAP to launch a new party.