Prashant Bhushan, in a letter dated February 26 addressed to the national executive of the party - a copy of which is with ET - slammed Kejriwal for "overturning collective decisions of the party".
Contradicting the party's public stand, he accused the party of seeking Congress' support for forming government in Delhi after its embarrassing loss in Lok Sabha elections. Seemingly referring to Kejriwal, he also said that the one-man-centric election campaign during Delhi elections made AAP look like any other conventional political party.
On Sunday, AAP's Delhi state secretary Dilip Pandey wrote a letter to the national secretary Pankaj Gupta accusing Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan of anti-party activities. Last week, AAP's national executive authorised Kejriwal, the party's national convener and undisputed leader, to reconstitute the PAC, the party's top decision-making body.
Top sources in AAP told ET that the party on Friday constituted a 3-member panel to mediate between the three leaders. Members of this committee - Pankaj Gupta, Anand Kumar and Gopal Rai - met Yadav on Saturday night and Bhushan on Sunday morning. The duo's offer to quit the PAC was conveyed to the panel during these interactions.
A top leader of AAP interpreted these developments as evidence of Kejriwal's firm grip on the party, which he, along with Yadav, Bhushan and others, founded in 2012. "The ball is now in Arvind's court as he has the final authority to decide who will be part of the body," he told ET.
Yadav, while offering to leave the PAC, sought a fresh assignment from the national executive, according to the sources cited above. He also drew the panel's attention to his demands for organisational reforms and for more frequent meetings of bodies like the national executive. Bhushan also offered to opt out of the PAC, but suggested that Delhi ministers Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai should do the same to make way for fresh blood in the top decision-making body. Bhushan also said that the PAC needed more geographical and gender diversity.
"But Prashantji's proposal concerning Manish (Sisodia) and Gopal (Rai) was only a suggestion and not a condition," said a top party source, who did not wish to be identified. ET could not reach Yadav and Bhushan for a comment despite repeated attempts as they were both out of town on Sunday. Attempts to reach Kejriwal on Sunday were not successful.
On Saturday, when ET sought Bhushan's responses to the proposed PAC rejig, he had this to say: "I am not interested in holding any post in the party. I just want to ensure that the party should not compromise on its founding principles. There are certainly some problems with internal democracy and transparency which need to be corrected. I do not wish to say any more."
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
from Top Stories - Google News http://ift.tt/1E8pp0d
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment