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AAP mired in crisis
A month after it vanquished the BJP and the Congress to take power in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is battling its worst internal crisis, causing widespread dismay in its rank and file.
A month after it vanquished the BJP and the Congress to take power in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is battling its worst internal crisis, causing widespread dismay in its rank and file. AAP leaders admit they are eagerly awaiting the return of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from Bengaluru, where he is undergoing naturopathy treatment for cough and high blood sugar, to put out the fires which are threatening to engulf India's youngest political party.
It was on February 14 that the AAP scored a stunning electoral victory, winning 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi's assembly, leaving the BJP with just three and wiping out the Congress. But within a fortnight, Kejriwal loyalists launched a war on two of the party's best known leaders, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, accusing them of trying to oust the AAP chief.
At a hurriedly called meeting, the party's National Executive voted to sack both from the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the AAP's highest decision making body. A stunned Bhushan, a Supreme Court advocate and an AAP founder, and Yadav, a leading political pundit, denied the charges but insisted - in an oblique criticism of Kejriwal - that the AAP needed inner-party democracy.
Other AAP leaders plunged into the ugly internecine conflict, mostly ranged against the two. A group of AAP legislators called them "traitors", saying they had actually wanted the party to lose in Delhi. When another senior party leader, Mayank Gandhi, leaked out what really transpired at the meeting that ousted Bhushan and Yadav, he too came under attack.
Anjali Damania, who unsuccessfully contested the LS polls on AAP ticket, quit in disgust, after a conversation between a former AAP legislator and Kejriwal was released to the media, implying that AK had approved "breaking up" of Congress MLAs. Damania said she had backed Kejriwal for values, "not horse-trading". If all this wasn't enough, stings allegedly done on Kejriwal aide Sanjay Singh seemed to show the party had covertly tried to get Congress support for an AAP government in 2014 while publicly denouncing it.
In the process, its second-rung leaders and activists rue, the AAP is marking the very first month of its rule in Delhi amid gloom – instead of enjoying the moment. An AAP leader admitted: "There was positivity after winning the 67 seats. That seems to have faded away. This positivity could have been utilised in expanding the party." Another said: "It was inevitable. The signs of cracks had started appearing right after the Lok Sabha polls. And it was certain that AAP's success in Delhi would determine the future of the two camps." He added: "Yogendra Yadav has been successful in portraying himself as a victim but he is not." "What we see is disgusting," said an AAP supporter. "We thought the AAP will be different from other parties."
By: Gaurav Sharma
