Three days after the national executive meeting of the Aam Aadmi Party voted out its founder members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the political affairs committee, the Arvind Kejriwal camp sent out no signs of reconciliation as they marshalled more voices in support of the Delhi Chief Minister.
Party insiders suspect this to be a sign of the things to come as a group of leaders around Mr. Kejriwal may try to take control of the party.
Some national executive members who voted against the resolution to remove Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan have privately expressed fears that they, too, may face a fate similar to those of the two leaders.
Speaking to a television news channel, senior leader Ashutosh said Mr. Kejriwal had wanted to quit politics because Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan had been repeatedly questioned him about the way he was running the party.
“Many questions were raised at Arvind during a party meeting. He got up to respond, but broke into tears instead,” the AAP leader is quoted as saying. “Kejriwal said, ‘I fought against Robert Vadra, Ambani and Narendra Modi, but I can’t fight with my own people.’”
Mr. Ashutosh said the party did not want the issue to go public despite attempts to remove Mr. Kejriwal from the post of convener.
Around August-September, Mr. Bhushan had written to Mr. Kejriwal, saying he would hold a press conference to destroy the party if Mr. Kejriwal did not resign and if Mr. Yadav was not made convener.
“When Arvind broke into tears at Jungpura, he went back home, held discussions with his family and decided to quit politics,” he said.
Mr. Ashutosh said he had heard from Ashish Khetan and others about Mr. Bhushan openly saying that the party should lose the Delhi Assembly election.
Adding to the debate, senior party leader from Punjab Bhagwant Mann said Mr. Bhushan had so far been treated with leniency and stricter action should have been taken against him.
“We are with Arvind Kejriwal ji , Prashant Bhushan’s fight with Arvind Kejriwal is personal,” he said.
Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the national executive meeting had decided against anymore bickering in the party, and a tu tu mein mein (spat) culture should not spread.
On Saturday, Mayank Gandhi, a national executive member from Maharashtra, said a small group within the party was trying to malign him as being anti-party and anti-Kejriwal.
Mr. Gandhi was one of the members who abstained from voting at the meeting. In a blog post a day after the meeting, he said Mr. Kejriwal had earlier threatened to quit as national convener if Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Yadav were not removed from the political affairs committee.
