Arvind Kejriwal reveals his stand on party dispute; threatens to quit AAP and form his own party

NEW DELHI: A sting by a party worker purportedly on Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal has finally revealed his stand on the dispute in his party. The Delhi chief minister, who has so far remained silent in public, is heard spitting fire against senior party functionaries Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Professor Anand Kumar for allegedly trying to make the party lose the Delhi assembly elections. He says these people "would have been kicked out" by now had they been in any other party. He also threatens to quit AAP and form his own party with his entire lot of MLAs.

The audio recording is significant since it shows the extent of Kejriwal's disenchantment and bitterness over the rebellion by Yadav and Bhushan. He fails to conceal his anger and lashes out at them.

While senior AAP members did not dismiss the recording - purportedly of a conversation between Umesh Singh, a leader from Bihar, and Kejriwal on March 22 this year - as a fake, they called it a personal conversation that should not have been recorded at all. It is ironical that a party that has been encouraging sting operations and calling upon people to record conversations - it has not spared even the press - has now been stung by its own people.

Dilip Pandey, co-convenor of the Delhi unit, said: "Such fabricated and fake stings are surfacing ever since AAP's victory in Delhi polls to demean and defame Kejriwal. This indicates a deep-rooted conspiracy. Even if that is Arvind's voice, it's a private conversation, and if people want to call it a sting, they are being foolish," he said. Kejriwal's close associate, Ashutosh, also harped on the conspiracy angle. He, in fact, said Kejriwal had reacted like any other aggrieved person would have done.

However, Kejriwal's deep mistrust of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan and his opinion of their activities during the Delhi election, became amply clear through the recording. Since the controversy has broken out, Kejriwal has only tweeted on it once, saying that he was deeply hurt by everything. What volunteers and party members were expecting to hear during the party's national council meet on Saturday, where Kejriwal was supposed to make his first open address on the issue, was revealed by the recording.