Power politics: Fissures within AAP out in open

It's Kejriwal versus Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav

Less than a month after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s landslide victory in Delhi, faultlines within the fledgling party are out in the open. Founding members of the party Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan are pitted against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, with both sides indulging in a slugfest. Both Yadav and Bhushan through a series of letters have hit out against the “personality cult” growing within the party, calling for “inner party democracy” and elections to the important Political Affairs Committee.

Amid the studied silence of Kejriwal, his close aide Sanjay Singh has alleged that “attempts are being made to remove Kejriwal as AAP's national convenor.” The power tussle within the party, say sources, could see Yadav and Bhushan moved out of the party's national executive. The national executive scheduled for Wednesday promises to be a stormy one.

Taking a dig at Bhushan, former journalist and Kerjriwal’s close aide Ashutosh tweeted: “The decisive churning in AAP. It's clash of ideas between ultra left who demand referendum in Kashmir and pragmatic politics of welfarism.”

The rumblings within the party were evident right on the day of AAP’s historic victory on February 10, with Yadav advocating national expansion of the party. This ran counter to Kejriwal’s view of consolidating the party's position in Delhi.  

At the national executive meeting, last week, it has now emerged that Kejriwal himself had offered to resign as convenor, but was urged not to do so. While Yadav claimed on social media that the reports of supposed rift within the AAP was a figment of imagination, his joint letter with Bhushan revealed otherwise.

In another letter, Bhushan wrote, “One person-centric campaign, which was run during Delhi elections, is making our party look more and more like other conventional parties that are also one-person centric. The only difference being that we still claim that we are wedded to the principles of 'swaraj' while they don't.”

Similar divide within the party had come to the fore earlier after the Lok Sabha polls but differences were supposedly ironed out.

Now, sources disclose that Kejriwal himself, emboldened after the Delhi poll results is not averse to Yadav and Bhushan being evicted out of the national executive. Kejriwal allegedly wants to have his own people in important positions in the party.

By all accounts, the party with a difference, has now started resembling conventional political parties, with power politics ruling the roost.