The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday accused Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav of trying to sabotage the party before the Delhi assembly elections.
"There was a reason why it was decided to remove two senior leaders of party from PAC (political affairs committee). It was unanimously decided that internal matters of party should not be discussed publicly," AAP member Ashish Khetan said on Friday.
"They made efforts so that party loses... they told workers that let the party lose, it will be easy to remove Arvind," Khetan said at a press conference, shortly after Bhushan and Yadav accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of suppressing democracy within the AAP.
"When party was fighting an existential war, the two party leaders were trying to weaken the party and malign its image. They were trying to aid formation of a BJP government," he added.
Bhushan and Yadav, at a press conference earlier on Friday, offered to resign from all AAP posts if their demands - including transparency within and autonomy to local units - were met.
AAP spokesperson Sanjay Singh said they tried their best to "save" the AAP "family".
"We talked to Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav many times. We have tried our best to save the AAP family," Singh said.
Singh said that Yadav had written an apology letter, and then gone back on his word.
"They've tried to give an impression that Arvind-ji and all of us are at fault and we didn't agree upon any of the things they proposed. We had to come out with names so that they stop insulting us and our party workers."
"Is Arvind Kejriwal not taking care of the party workers and the party? Are we not working for the party? Yogendra also wrote an apology letter in his own hand but backed out at the last moment. In fact, it was unanimously decided that we all would sign it, asking for forgiveness from the people in general for all that had happened in the party for the last one month," Singh said.
He accused the two leaders of sending the wrong message across to party workers.
"They would say something inside (the party) and something else outside... Their intention was to get people of their choosing nominated to AAP national executive," he said.
"Bhushan and Yadav are trying to show that they are saviours and only we have problems."
At their press conference earlier on Friday, Bhushan and Yadav said they were willing to give up all posts in the Aam Aadmi Party if their five demands -- including transparency within and autonomy to local units -- were met by Kejriwal, whose loyalists have accused them of conspiring to oust the chief minister.
Singh, however, said Yadav and Bhushan did not care about five issues eventually, and only wanted specific people in the party's National Executive.
"While talking to us, they gave us a list of 10 names that should be nominated to the National Executive. Their intention was to get people of their choosing nominated," Singh said.
