The simmering rift in Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday took an ugly turn with four top leaders launching a blistering attack on Yogendra Yadav and father-son-duo of Shanti and Prashant Bhushan, accusing them of working for its defeat in the Delhi assembly polls and trying to malign image of Arvind Kejriwal.
In the first official statement by the top brass since the infighting came out in the open, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Transport Minister Gopal Rai, party General Secretary Pankaj Gupta and Sanjay Singh -- all known to be Kejriwal loyalists -- defended the decision to remove Prashant and Yadav from the powerful political affairs committee.
Yadav hit back at the party, alleging that Delhi MLAs were being “coerced” to sign papers against them while Prashant said the country would know the “whole truth” very soon.
A number of AAP leaders said that circumstances “forced” the leadership to come out with the statement over the issue.
The four Kejriwal loyalists accused Shanti, Prashant and Yadav of acting against party’s interest, saying they wanted defeat for AAP in the Delhi polls.
“The trio, especially Prashant called up volunteers from other states and told them not to campaign for the party. I will not be campaigning for the party this time. You guys also don’t campaign. It is necessary for the party to lose. It is only then Arvind (Kejriwal) will get some sense.
“In front of Anjali Damania, an AAP leader from Maharashtra, he told the same to workers of Mysore. Those funding the party were discouraged from doing so,” said a joint statement by the four AAP leaders.
“When volunteers were sweating out to the ensure party’s victory, Shanti, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were working for the party’s defeat,” it said.
Strongly refuting the allegations, Yadav accused the party leadership of putting pressure on the members to speak out against him as well as Prashant and Shanti Bhushan.
“They should not put pressure on members to speak out against us or force Delhi MLAs to sign papers against us.
“Hope this statement ends all slander, planting of allegations. Hope no more coercion of party functionaries and Delhi MLAs on this issue,” Yadav said.
Prashant and Yadav were voted out from the party’s PAC last week. The proposal to drop the two was introduced by Sisodia, seconded by Singh and supported by nine others including Gupta and Rai.
Kejriwal supporters had alleged that the trio wanted to remove him from the post of National Convenor.
Sources said a section of AAP MLAs were also undertaking a signature campaign seeking action against Prashant, Shanti and Yadav.
In their statement, the AAP leaders further claimed that Prashant had threatened to call a press conference in the midst of the heated election campaign.
“Two weeks before the election, when (AAP leader) Ashish Khetan called up Prashantji and requested him to head party’s Delhi Dialogue initiative, Prashantji said that he wanted the party to lose and win only 20-22 seats. ‘If the party loses only then the leadership will get some sense’,” the leaders claimed.
“For three days, 10 senior AAP leaders were trying to convince them not to address any press conference as this would have a negative impact on the party. At a time when the BJP and AAP were engaged in a cut throat battle, senior leaders were busy convincing them,” they alleged.
The leaders claimed that the party has “ample evidence” that Yadav tried to malign Kejriwal’s image and portray a negative side of the organisation.
“Some senior editors in private have also said that during the Delhi election, Yadav again tried to malign Kejriwal’s image by giving off the record information,” the leaders charged.
Lashing out at Shanti Bhushan, the leaders said that the AAP leader not only spoke in favour of BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi but also supported a breakaway faction AAP volunteers Vichar Manch.
Yadav said he and Prashant and Shanti Bhushan will respond to the allegations and challenged the party leadership to make them public.
“Hope Prashant Bhushan and my response will also be duly publicised by the party media. Hope party’s website will be opened for all volunteers’ responses,” the AAP leader said.
Yadav said the party’s internal Lokpal can probe any allegations against any member. “In this case since the Lokpal has already written a letter expressing his intent to investigate so let him do that. Truth shall prevail,” he said.
Responding to the allegations, Bhushan said that he will continue to fight for inner party democracy, transparency, Swaraj and accountability. “We have not come to make another political party, which is just a machine of wining elections by any means.”
The senior lawyer said the truth will come out very soon. “I think, the time has now come for the country to know the whole truth about this matter. Very soon, they will know the whole truth.
“It is good that those things that were being said through other people with the kind of innuendos and allegations that were being made are now being made by frontline leaders of the party,” Prashant said.
However, later, Gopal Rai said the party wants to give the two-founding members of the party one more chance.
“They have been dropped from the PAC and not from the party. The party wants to give them one more chance,” he said.
Justifying the statement by four leaders, an AAP leader said the leadership was forced to issue it. “It was decided in the National Executive that no one will go to public. But on the same day Mayank (Gandhi) wrote a blog. Prashant (Bhushan) and Yogendra (Yadav) gave interviews.
“All this was putting the party leadership in a bad light while they were trying to portray themselves as victims. There was a discontent among the volunteers and even they were questioning us. We wanted everyone to know what really transpired in the meeting and the reason for dropping the two from the PAC,” the AAP leader said.
