'Bouncers kicked and dragged our colleagues at AAP meet'

Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav, who has been ousted from the party's national executive, on Saturday said it was a death of democracy in the national council meet that took place in New Delhi.

"I say it with sadness that democracy has been murdered at the AAP national council meet today. Violence took place at the meet. One of our colleagues was kicked and dragged out of the meet by bouncers," Yadav told the media after the meeting. He also alleged that everything that happened in the meet was according to a pre-planned script.

"Everything happened as per a pre-planned script. Arvind [Kejriwal] announced Gopal Rai would be president, we opposed saying there should be a discussion but the same wasn't admitted," he added.

Yadav also said that people raised slogans against him and Prashant Bhushan amid Arvind Kejriwal's speech during the national council meeting.

"Only shouting took place, scuffle took place, bogus voting happened, and nothing else happened. It is a mockery of everything. Some of us were even prevented from coming out; this is what is happening here. I am ashamed and I apologise to all volunteers and supporters," he added.

Earlier in the day, the AAP removed dissident leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the national executive.

The AAP national council also removed Ajith Jha and Professor Anand Kumar from the national executive.

Earlier on Friday, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had hit out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of stifling internal democracy and adopting unfair means to capture power. They alleged that any issue raised by them was being projected as questioning Kejriwal's leadership and attempts to remove him from the post of AAP's national convener.

The tussle got murkier later after a secretly-taped phone conversation was leaked in which the AAP chief is heard abusing Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav and threatening to exit the party with 67 Delhi MLAs.