AAP MLAs launch open attack on Amanatullah Khan

NEW DELHI: The political drama within Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) intensified on Monday with AAP legislators carrying out an open attack against Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan for alleging that senior leader Kumar Vishwas was trying to arrange a coup against leader Arvind Kejriwal, after the party’s poor performance in the civic elections last month.

As rumours of a letter, being signed by at least 30 MLA’s asking for severe action against Khan, were doing the rounds, environment minister Imran Hussain tweeted that Khan ‘had lost his mental balance’ for making such allegations.

Party MLA Sanjeev Jha added fuel to the fire by tweeting that Kejriwal was ‘still’ the party’s leader. This was seen as his way of pledging support to the national convenor of the party.

While party leaders Sanjay Singh and Arvind Kejriwal met deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia earlier during the day and reportedly sent him off to placate Vishwas, the Political Advisory Committee (PAC) of the party decided to meet late evening on Monday to decide on Khan’s fate in the party, who incidentally is also a part of the PAC. The rift has erupted over the last four days since the party sat down to re-think its political strategy and examine the reasons for the string of failures it has witnessed over the last few months.

The crucial PAC meeting being held at Kejriwal's residence was still underway at the time of this report going to press.