Thirty members of the Gujarat unit of Aam Admi Party would be attending the 'Swaraj Samvad' meet organised by dissidents Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan in Gurgaon tomorrow.
The tussle between two camps in AAP at the national level has divided the state unit too. Senior leader Kanu Kalsariya said that Arvind Kejriwal should be given more power, while a group led by Nachiketa Desai, a former scribe and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary Mahadev Desai, said he and others believed in the "politics of change by Yogendra Yadav".
"I got to know that some people including Nachiketa Desai have been invited, but as I am not convinced about the rival group's contentions against Kejriwal, I am not going to be a part of it," Kalsaria said, speaking to PTI today.
"I believe we should give Kejriwal support and increase his powers so that he can work more efficiently and give a good model of governance," said Kalsaria, a former BJP MP.
"The party got a thumping victory in Delhi polls, which became difficult to digest for some people. This is an obvious problem for any political party. But we all want to resolve this issue," he added.
When asked whether the party will take any action against those who attend the Gurgaon event, Kalsaria said it would be better to ignore them, but the final decision would be taken at a party meeting next week.
Desai, on the other hand, said 30 delegates from Gujarat including 10 to 12 people from the city and others from Surat, Rajkot, and Junagadh districts would be attending the meet.
"The people with Kejriwal are power-seekers and those who really want to see a change in politics are with Yogendra Yadav. Gujarat AAP unit is full of power-seekers, that is why they are with Kejriwal," said Desai.
He also alleged that Gujarat convener of AAP Sukhdev Patel launched 'Swaraj Sandesh yatra', with a name similar to Gurgaon event, only to confuse and misguide the people.
"Besides, the day when Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and professor Anand Kumar were ousted from PAC, members of Gujarat unit of AAP, who are not even in the national council, got a photo clicked with Kejriwal and posted it on social networking sites to give a message that the entire Gujarat unit is with Kejriwal," he said.
Desai claimed that NBA activist Medha Patkar and veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar along with around a thousand party workers, including 100 members who had contested the Lok Sabha polls on AAP tickets will join the event organised by Yadav and Bhushan tomorrow.
