In the absence of a formal announcement from Aam Aadmi Party central leadership, members of the party in Haryana have been left perplexed by National Executive member Naveen Jaihind’s assertion that the State and district units have been dissolved and new bodies would be constituted in the month of April.
Mr. Jaihind, who had vehemently opposed State unit in-charge Yogendra Yadav at the national executive meet in New Delhi last week, said in Karnal that the party would rid itself of “conspirators” and take a final call on the matter on March 28.
A known critic of Mr. Yadav, Mr. Jaihind has in the past too never acknowledged the State unit and, according to party sources, even when he would organise meetings in Chandigarh, most of the times it would be without informing the State unit about it.
Mr. Jaihind, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections as the party candidate from Rohtak, said the party workers from the State have reposed unflinching faith in national convener Arvind Kejriwal and would be meeting him soon. He claimed that the district and State units no longer existed.
The claims have puzzled the party office-bearers in the State as they have not received any communication to the effect. Its Haryana convener Ashawant Gupta said, “I have not heard anything to the effect. In fact, I was in Delhi as a representative of the Haryana unit for the National Executive meeting on March 4 and had even voted in it. Had there been some development like this, we would have known.”
Dr. Gupta said the National Executive had in mid-February directed the State unit to carry on with its work. “The four States of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were represented at the meeting in Delhi. All these were States whose units had not been dissolved.”
He said the national general secretary Pankaj Gupta had in fact written to him stating that all State teams should continue to operate till Operation Vistaar, that seeks to expand the party’s footprint, is announced in their area.
Another party leader said though Mr. Jaihind’s proximity to the central leadership is all too well known, his recent claim could both be an effort to flaunt his own stature or an indicator of the things to come.
