Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav’s meeting with party workers here to discuss the preparation for the upcoming Swaraj Samvad convention on April 14 has made clear the division in the party ranks following the recent expulsion of several founding members from key posts.
Even though Prof. Yadav sought to underplay the meeting saying he had come to discuss the “strategy” for the convention with some partners and it was not a “formal” meeting, the discomfort in the party leadership owing allegiance to convener Arvind Kejriwal was quite perceptible.
Party’s Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur, Bhagwant Mann, was the first to react to Prof. Yadav’s reaching out to the party cadre. “Visit to the meeting called by him and to the Swaraj Samvad would tantamount to anti-party activity,” he declared, cautioned the party leaders to stay away from them.
A similar diktat had been issued by party leader Sanjay Singh on Monday when he had warned that party leaders making “anti-party statements” would have to face action.
In Punjab, the bickering has been in the open with Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi, who was also the party leader in Lok Sabha, openly backing AAP founding members Prof. Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who had been suspended from the national executive and political affairs committee for questioning the party leadership on various issues.
In the past week, the party has taken action against two of its candidates in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. While Jyoti Mann Akshara, who had contested from Jalandhar, was expelled, Bhai Baldeep Singh who had fought from Khadur Sahib, was suspended for making anti-party statements.
The party had also suspended campaign committee member Prof. Manjit Singh and two others. Incidentally, Prof. Singh was one of the leaders present in Prof. Yadav’s meeting on Tuesday. A number of party leaders from Haryana also participated in the meeting called by him.
Meanwhile, party national executive member Naveen Jaihind, a staunch rival of Prof. Yadav in Haryana, held separate meetings in the city to send out clear signal that he was the leader of choice for the party’s Central leadership.
