Trouble in AAP Paradise

New Delhi: It seems Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has prepared its final assault to oust the rebel-duo leaders – Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the party.

Senior leaders of AAP on Tuesday launched a signature drive asking its 67 MLAs to sign on a two page letter addressed to Arvind Kejriwal, National Convenor of AAP, seeking their removal.

This development comes just after Yadav alleged that the party’s MLAs are being forced by the senior leadership to sign letters seeking action against him and Bhushan.

On Tuesday, the party, in an official statement, had come down hard on both leaders accusing them of working against the party during Delhi polls.

Kapil Mishra, AAP MLA from Karawal Nagar told NewsMobile, “The aim of the signature campaign started on Tuesday is to demand the expulsion of the duo from the party.”

Mishra further said, “Due to the anti-party activities of both the leaders during assembly elections, we have to fight on two fronts, one against Congress-BJP and other inside the party who wanted party’s defeat.”

The two-page letter, drafted in Hindi, mentions the charges against the two, which include ‘anti-party activities’, ‘making adverse statements in the media’, ‘conspiracy to tarnish the image of Arvind Kejriwal and remove him’ among others revealed Kapil Mishra to NewsMobile.

However, according to reports, few MLAs of AAP have claimed that they were being compelled by senior leaders to sign the two-page letter intended to build a consensus on the removal of Bhushan and Yadav from the party.

Refuting the charges of compelling any MLAs to sign the letter, Mishra told NewsMobile, “All the MLAs are signing the petition wilfully and no one is compelled to sign it. Till now none of the MLAs have refused to sign.”

According to credible sources, the aim of signature campaign is to build a background prior to the National Executive Meeting which is scheduled on March 28 to justify the decision taken against the two leaders.

On March 4, the duo was ousted from Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of AAP during the NE meeting held in national capital. 

The rift in AAP became visible when a letter of Prashant Bhushan came to light in the media alleging the party of becoming one-man centric. Soon the letter surfaced and the party got divided into two factions one supporting Arvind Kejriwal and few backing the rebel duo.

Several senior party leaders backing Kejriwal have alleged that Yadav and Bhushan were conspiring together to remove Kejriwal from the national convener’s post.

Meanwhile, Yadav and Bhushan, on their part, have rejected these allegations in official statements to the media.