AAP rift reaches boiling point: Meet on March 4 to decide fate of Yogendra Yadav & Prashant Bhushan

NEW DELHI: The rift within Aam Aadmi Party has reached a boiling point with dissenting duo Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan weighing their options and a fresh war-of-words kicking off in social media on Monday. The party – which is firmly controlled by Arvind Kejriwal loyalists – has called for a meeting of its national executive on March 4 to take what could be make-or-break decisions.

On Monday, AAP leader Sanjay Singh took the battle right into Yadav-Bhushan camp and said the March 4 meeting will take crucial decisions by majority, if not by consensus. He referred to a Hindi newspaper report in which AAP founder leader and father of Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan, had suggested Yadav’s name as the new convenor in place of Kejriwal. “Is this internal democracy,” said Singh, adding that the March 4 meeting will decide if the party can "continue to function like this."

On Monday, Yadav cut short his visit to Chandigarh and returned to Delhi while Kejriwal-confidante Ashutosh tweeted the war was not about personal egos but about ideology. “The decisive churning in AAP. It's clash of ideas between ultra left who demand referendum in Kashmir and pragmatic politics of welfarism,” he tweeted on Monday morning, adding: “This will make way for future politics of AAP. This is my personal view.”

The Ashutosh tweets are being interpreted as a straight jab at Yadav and Bhushan. Yadav, a socialist at heart, has had strong views on land ordinance and such people-centric issues while Bhushan had once controversially demanded a referendum in Kashmir on Army’s continuing presence in the militancy-hit state.

Sources close to Yadav and Bhushan told ET that although they have offered to stay out of the party’s top decision-making political affairs committee (PAC), they would rather not “wield the axe themselves but let the other camp make the first move”. (Full Story - AAP rift: Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan offer to opt out of top panel)

AAP Delhi secretary Dilip Pandey has already written a letter to its national secretary Pankaj Gupta demanding Yadav and Bhushan be sacked for “anti-party activists.”

The rift came out in the open after party ombudsman Admiral Ramdas sent a scathing letter to all three leaders expressing anguish over the growing divide and trust deficit between the senior leadership.

Ramdas, in his letter, had listed examples of mistrust among the party’s top leadership. Interestingly, he also proposed a concerted effort to build on the Delhi success and go national, the core argument put forward by Yadav. (Read: AAP's Admiral L Ramdas laments trust deficit between senior leaders)

On Sunday, Ramdas spoke to ET and expressed his concern at the internal communiqué getting leaked to the media. He said he had “every reason to believe the letter has been received positively” by the party.

Yadav and Bhushan are pitted against Kejriwal, who enjoys overwhelming support among the party’s volunteers, who played a key role in the party’s routing of the BJP in the Delhi assembly elections. At the heart of the division are allegations of lack of inner-party democracy in decision making besides differences over whether the party should build on its success in Delhi and go national.