Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yogendra Yadav on Friday alleged that lies are being spread about him for the last few days that he was firm on getting the national convener's post and said the recent happenings have broken the trust within the party.
Addressing a press conference here along with his party colleague Prashant Bhushan, Yadav claimed that lies are being spread to project him in bad light.
"A lie is being spread since the last few days regarding me that I have been running a campaign asking people over phone to promote me for the post of national convenor," Yadav said.
Yadav also rubbished reports that he wanted to take over from Kejriwal the national convener's post.
"As per party's constitution, the national council is not the forum where the decision on national convener can be taken. Only the national executive can decide on it," said Yadav.
"Who will be party's national convener is not an issue, we have never raised it," he added.
More From This Section
Yadav said that trust in the AAP has been broken by the events of the past few weeks.
"We raised the first issue of independence of state units. The second issue that we raised was of internal probe by the AAP's Lokpal of incidents like recovery of liquor from the residence of AAP's Uttam Nagar candidate," said Yadav.
"Thirdly, we demanded that the volunteers who are soul of the party should be heard. Fourth, we demanded that we should be transparent like we have been demanding of other parties and should accept RTI," he added.
Yadav expressed his delight over the fact that important issues would be discussed instead of non-issues at tomorrow's national council meet.
Yadav further said the AAP is a product of a unique movement in India's democracy.
"It was a movement to give power back to the people. This party is here to establish a new paradigm and the people have high hopes from this party," said Yadav.
"But we must admit, this is the only party that is discussing inner-party democracy, transparency and how the volunteers can find their voice," he added.
Yadav claimed that the issues being raised today were not personal but fundamental to the movement.
"People are connected with the spirit of the revolution which created the Aam Aadmi Party," he added.
Yadav's reaction came hours after his party colleague Kumar Vishwas asked him and Prashant Bhushan to leave the AAP 'gracefully' if nothing was working out.
Vishwas said there were some forces behind the rift in the party, which is showing no signs of abating yet.
The AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is believed to be adamant about ensuring the removal of Bhushan and Yadav from the party's national executive, has, however, kept silent on the issue so far.
The meeting of the AAP's 320-member national council would be held on Saturday during which a decision is likely to be taken on removing Bhushan and Yadav from the party's national executive.
According to reports, the 320-member national council members are basically India Against Corruption movement volunteers from various states who supported the idea of the formation of AAP. They elect the national executive which chooses PAC members.