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Lashing out at the "murder of internal democracy" and labelling their expulsion as "unconstitutional", the duo alleged that "goondaism" was used to silence any voices of dissent at the meet. Refuting the charges, the Arvind Kejriwal camp attributed it to "numerical majority" of AAP members which favoured the ouster of the group of Bhushan, Yadav as well as Prof Ajit Jha and Prof. Anand Kumar for their alleged "anti-party" activities.
Yet more drama could be in store as both camps mull their next moves. While AAP sources indicated that the first task would be to remove Yogendra Yadav from the post of the party's National Spokesperson, Prashant Bhushan would be removed as member of the party's Disciplinary Committee. In the meanwhile the Yadav-Bhushan camp is mulling options of whether to move court against the "illegal" proceedings at the National Council or to approach the Election Commission or even attempt to re-convene the National Council the party's highest decision making body with the legitimate members and have the issue discussed threadbare. The last possibility appears remote with AAP sources indicating the party which now represents Kejriwal's mandate is contemplating disciplinary action against the four "senior leaders" for anti-party activities.
The assertion of the Kejriwal stamp on the party is in many ways, also a sidelining of the "senior leadership" (Bhushan, Yadav, Prof Kumar) and an assertion of the younger leaders ( Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh etc). While the former are insistent on the party adhering to its founding principles of "swaraj" and transparency, the latter is more focussed on winning elections and delivering results with ideology being given the short shrift.
Opposition parties who had been hectored at by AAP in the run up to the elections, did not lose an opportunity to take a jibe at AAP. National Conference' Omar Abdullah tweeted, "To think that commentators were actually advising older political parties to be more like #AAP, seems #AAP has decided to be more like us". BJP's Arun Jaitley also the Finance Minister today commenting on the slugfest in AAP said, "With a lot of expectation and high hopes, people of Delhi had chosen the government. The promises which AAP and its leaders have made with public, they must fulfil them." Adding, "They should not let this historical opportunity go waste just because of their immature politics."
Incidentally, the storm that has played out in the public arena- on television, through social media and through press conferences from both camps, had its origins a year aback in May 2014, after the Lok Sabha elections. While Kejriwal went ahead despite the party ruling against it, and tried to break off Congress MLAs to help AAP again form a government in Delhi, Yadav and Bhushan had protested against it. Incidentally, one of the five demands of the duo was that AAP forward the sting tapes of Kejriwal allegedly indulging in horse trading with Congress MLAs to the internal Lokpal for a thorough probe- the demand has been outrightly rejected by AAP. It was dismissed by Kejriwal loyalist Ashutosh as a move to "oust Kejriwal as National Convenor".
Among the other demands that the two had put across was the autonomy of states to decide on fighting locals polls, forwarding cases to the Lokpal of disciplinary violations by party members such as Rs two crore funding, illicit liquour found with in the possession of AAP candidate as well as Kejriwal horsetrading tape to the Lokpal. The duo also demanded that the vacant posts in the National Exceutive be filled by independent voices and most importantly the party adopt Right to Information in full letter and spirit. AAP was not willing to fulfil most demands and although it claimed to do so, none of the cases till date have been forwarded to the Lokpal.
Bhushan today reiterated his charge of Kejriwal being dictatorial, saying, "I failed in my attempt to curb his dictatorial tendencies." The evident split in AAP, ironically has come within a month of the party's landslide victory in Delhi. The run up to the dramatic events on Saturday began with Kejriwal's supporters lining up the route to the Calista farmhouse in Kapashera, demanding removal of the "traitors" Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. Incidentally, Admiral Ramdas the party's Lokpal had been specifically asked to stay away from the proceedings by the AAP to avoid "confrontation" as it was an "internal meeting of the party."
While the Kejriwal camp claimed that a show of hands had decided the fate of the dissenters with 247 supporting the resolution for ouster, 8 voting against it and 54 abstaining; the entire process was challenged by the Yadav-Bhushan camp. There was no clarity of how many of the 311 members present there had legitimate voting rights especially as 67 MLAs who are not Council members and have no voting rights had been formally invited. Several of Yadav supporters from outside Delhi were not allowed entry into the venue. Yadav-Bhushan had demanded a secret ballot which was rejected. Prior to this, Kejriwal who addressed the meeting for 45 minutes spoke out directly against the duo and made it clear that he would not work with them to which he was reportedly cheered on by his supporters.
Just as the duo had been ousted from the party's PAC earlier, (a move that was strongly protested by AAP member Mayank Gandhi through his blogs), their ouster from the National Executive today was, it was alleged as per the pre- decided script by the Kejriwal camp. In a series of press conferences and counter press conferences, the two camps again traded charges with the ugly spectacle only reinforcing the stance of traditional parties that "alternative politics" offered by AAP was nothing but "immature politics". Both Yadav and Bhsuhan today reiterated their "unconditional apology" to the lakhs of volunteers and supporters across the country who felt letdown, while Ashutosh said, "Such things happen in Democracy".
