The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday night sacked dissident leader Yogendra Yadav as chief spokesperson of the party and also removed rebel leaders Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar as spokespersons while announcing a new 20-member panel packed with Arvind Kejriwal loyalists to interact with the media.
Atishi Marlena, who was one of the prominent spokespersons of the party during the election campaign, was also dropped.
The removal of Mr. Yadav, Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Kumar came four days after they were expelled as national executive members during the party’s national council meeting after being accused of indulging in anti-party activities.
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Mr. Bhushan was on Sunday removed as the chief of party’s disciplinary committee.
Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Yadav were sacked from the party’s political affairs committee of the party on March 4, 2015.
New panel of spokespersons include Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Ilyas Azmi and Pankaj Gupta, Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan, all known to be close to Mr. Kejriwal.
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The other members of the panel are MLAs Saurabh Bharadwaj, Adarsh Shastri, Kapil Mishra and Alka Lamba and MP Bhagwant Mann.
Senior advocate H.S. Phoolka and Rahul Mehra will also interact with the media. The party has also retained Raghav Chaddha in the panel.
The party has appointed Preeti Sharma Menon as spokesperson in Maharashtra, Prithvi Reddy in Karnataka, Akshay Hunka in Madhya Pradesh and Nishikant Mohapatra in Odisha.
Richa Pandey Mishra, a key leader of party’s women’s wing, too has found a place in the panel.