Rebel Aam Aadmi Party faction led by Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday stopped short of splitting the party by floating a new group and deciding to take a call on launching a new political outfit after six months.
After an eight-hour-long meeting of supporters from various states, a resolution was passed to set up the new group -- Swaraj Abhiyan-- which will try to establish the concept of "swaraj" and work for strengthening "alternative politics".
In the meeting, voting was conducted among the volunteers to decide about the future course of action in which around 69 of those present opposed leaving AAP and forming a new party.
Yadav maintained that they were still part of the party and were not keen on leaving it.
Hinting that a crackdown was imminent on rebels, AAP leader Ashutosh said the party will "soon" sit down to discuss the developments at the dissident-led convention and take an "appropriate" decision in this regard.
Only, 25.45 per cent of those who voted favoured forming a new party while a mere 1.43 per cent said they trusted the AAP leadership, according to the dissident camp. The group said it will undertake a country-wide campaign to muster support.
Yadav said a decision on forming a political party will be taken after six months following country-wide "consultations and evaluations of the movement".
In his address, Bhushan was severely critical of AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying he was intolerant of dissenting opinions which resulted in rift in the party.
"Those who raised questions were expelled from top party posts. Today I heard that we may be expelled for organising this convention. The message from the top is if you raise voice against the party you will be expelled," he said at the convention, 'Swaraj Samwad'.
The bitter infighting in AAP that had come to fore after the Assembly polls saw expulsion of founding member Bhushan and party ideologue Yadav from its top decision-making bodies.
A number of AAP functionaries including party's Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi and prominent individuals including Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy and Admiral L Ramdas, who had expressed solidarity with the rebel group, stayed away from the meet.
Yadav in his speech said that "attendance" at the meet was indicative of the fact that problems with the party were not only of one or two people.
"Principled workers of the party do not agree on happenings in the AAP...the biggest challenge is to prevent hope from being broken," he said.
Both the dissidents appeared to steer clear of immediacy of launching a party, as they stressed on the importance of a "new start". "We need time to prepare, today is not the day for a new party. We will keep working for the people. We will not leave this party, it does not belong to a single person," Yadav said.
Bhushan, who was particularly aggressive, took on the party's top leadership for "threatening" to expel those who participated in the meet.
"That means there is no place for dialogue in the party," he said, adding, "We will have to start a new dialogue on issues like challenges being faced by the farmers...development models in the country through swaraj and find solutions and launch a movement.
In the resolution passed in today's meeting, the group said they will take up pressing national issues and hold similar dialogues at district, state and local levels.
The resolution empowered a 49-member grouping to take steps towards framing the whole "Swaraj" campaign and appoint members in this regard.
It said the AAP movement that billed to be a nation-wide political alternative had restricted itself to metropolitan cities and a few regions.
The resolution said the group will strive towards identifying and training of new volunteers in preparing the agenda of a new India with volunteers and intellectuals.
Yadav and Bhushan had announced their decision of holding the dialogue, 'Swaraj Samwad', to discuss the future course of action after their expulsion from AAP's top posts, triggering speculation that they may float a new party.
An audio message of Admiral Ramdas, who was recently removed from the post of party's internal Lokpal, was played out from the stage.
In his message, Ramdas said that dialogue cannot be seen as an "anti party activity" and that people must be allowed to speak in a democracy.
