Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav on Thursday made public a "note", jointly written with Prashant Bhushan, which he had sent to the party on March 17 claiming that they had proposed their resignation from all party posts conditional to acceptance of their demands.
Countering the claim made by Arvind Kejriwal loyalists that the Yadav-Bhushan duo had voluntarily offered to step down, Yadav said that towards the end of the note, in which the duo laid down certain demands, they said upon acceptance of these they would resign from the National Executive and also give up other positions.
"If these are accepted, both of us will happily step down from the National Executive and will also give up all other party positions and responsibilities.
"This includes chair of National Disciplinary Committee in case of Prashant Bhushan and Chief Spokesperson and In-Charge of Haryana in the case of Yogendra Yadav. Being an ordinary member of the party is big enough an honour for the two of us," it said.
In the five-point note, put as "our proposal to break the deadlock in the party" by the duo, they demanded that the party voluntarily accepts RTI, involve volunteers in key-decision making, make the Lokpal and Lokayuktas active in maintaining code of conduct, ensure autonomy of state units, and fill up vacancies in the National Executive by the National Council through secret ballot.
On their demands on Lokpal and Lokayukta, they said, "The NE had decided in its meeting on March 4 to forward... allegations regarding stocking of liquor by our candidate from Uttam Nagar, Naresh Ballian and allegations regarding receipt of Rs 2 crore in April 2014 from "shell companies".
"We have already requested the Lokpal to inquire into allegations against the two of us. To these the following two cases should be added: various stings and allegation concerning horse-trading for the formation of government in Delhi with Congress support following the Lok Sabha elections, the allegations regarding fake degree of our law minister Tomar," they added.
In his rejoinder Yadav added, "Please read carefully our conditional offer of resignation. Judge for yourself if these conditions have been met."
Yadav later said that he along with Bhushan had not tendered resignation, but offered to quit provided their demands were met.
In the note, the duo asked the party to put out list of its active and primary members, office bearers and members of various committees at all the levels, minutes of the meetings of various committees, decisions taken by office bearers and full statement of income and expenditure.
"Information exempted under Section 8 of RTI and other confidential matters of political strategy need not be disclosed," it said.
Elaborating on the issue of involving volunteers in the party's decision making process, they stressed that the party develops a system in the "next three months" through which the opinion of the volunteers at the relevant level can be recorded.
"The voting results should be disclosed to volunteers. In case the party decides not to go by the majority opinion of the volunteers, the relevant committee or office bearer should record the reasons in writing," the note said. On the party's expansion plans, another long-standing demand of Yadav, they said the state executives should be free to take final decision concerning participation in local body elections.
"The State Executive should be allowed to take a decision concerning participation in state assembly elections as per the framework or criteria set by the National Executive. This principle should be extended to all the states where Mission Vistaar phase One has been completed," it added.
