NEW DELHI: Don’t write off the Aam Aadmi Party, says Yogendra Yadav, who was sacked from a key decision-making panel of the party last evening.
Mr Yadav trended this morning on Twitter. Or at least his initials did, sharing space with those of Prashant Bhushan – YY and PB. Mr Bhushan too was removed from the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee or PAC yesterday.
“Finally, truth prevails,” Mr Yadav said today, refusing to offer any more comment on a blog written by AAP Maharashtra leader Mayank Gandhi in which the latter alleges that party chief Arvind Kejriwal had threatened to quit if Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan continued in the PAC.
Mr Yadav pointed out that AAP has decided that “no member will speak in the media regarding yesterday’s meeting.”
Mr Gandhi, who dissented at an AAP meeting yesterday where the two leaders were voted out, said he was speaking out despite a “gag order”. Mr Gandhi had joined the AAP’s national executive meeting on video conference from Mumbai and abstained from voting.
Mr Kejriwal’s supporters have accused Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan, who have repeatedly criticised the party chief recently, of conspiring to unseat him. They were voted out of the AAP committee in a six-hour meeting that saw hard negotiations till late on Wednesday evening.
Mr Kejriwal skipped that meeting. The 46-year-old Delhi chief minister left this morning for Bengaluru, where he will spend 10 days at a health farm undergoing naturopathy to treat cough and high blood sugar.
AAP’s internal tussle, days after the party scored an emphatic victory in the Delhi assembly elections, has dismayed its supporters all over the world.
Yogendra Yadav said today, “In the past 24 hours, I’ve received many messages of support from AAP followers from the world over. I urge them to keep their faith in AAP.”
The idea of AAP, he said, “is bigger than any of us” and added, “Do not write off the Aam Aadmi Party… Sometimes people talk about the Aam Aadmi Party in the past tense but there is something in this party that it rises again.”
