The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday amended the party’s constitution to remove a clause, which will allow Arvind Kejriwal to continue as the national convener of the party, the highest post in the party, multiple party leaders have told The Hindu .
This is one of the 14 amendments made to the party’s constitution at the National Council meeting on Thursday. Before the amendment, as per the party constitution, no member was allowed to hold the same post as an office-bearer for more than two consecutive terms of three years each. “It has been removed. A total of 14 amendments have been made,” a party leader said when asked about the clause.
The party did not officially comment on the amendment or share the new constitution.
Since the formation of the AAP in 2012 and its registration as a party in 2013, Mr. Kejriwal has been at the helm. In December 2018, the party’s national council had decided to extend its term by a year that gave Mr. Kejriwal a year more than the maximum tenure allowed by the constitution. At that time, his second tenure as national convener was about to end on April 26, 2019.
‘Practical difficulties’
Earlier in the day, in a video statement, senior party leader Manish Sisodia said that multiple changes to party’s constitution had been made at the national council meeting on Thursday to remove “practical difficulties” in going forward.
Mentioning some of the amendments, Mr. Sisodia said, “Earlier, one clause of our constitution was that two people from the same family could not fight the election. This rule will be only valid for the existing members of AAP. But we are witnessing that many new leaders are joining our party two of whose family members have fought elections. In such cases, the party has decided to allow such people to join, fight elections and work for AAP.”
“We have also decided that every member will have the full right to criticise the leadership or to bring out organisational issues on all the party platforms. But no one should bring such issues in the public domain,” he added.
The primary unit of the party has been changed to district level from booth level.
