Talks 'going good' between Yogendra Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal camps

NEW DELHI: In the third attempt in three days to sort out contentious issues between dissident leader Yogendra Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, members from both the camps held a marathon meeting in south Delhi today.

The meeting, which started in the evening extended till late in the night, sources said.

Apart from the issues related to the inner party democracy, transparency in the organisation, preparing an active list of volunteers at the earliest, identifying states the party will contest polls and appropriate role of Yadav and his future in the party were also discussed.

"It is going good so far. Several issues were discussed including the role of Yogendra Yadav in the party. Now that he is out of PAC, an appropriate responsibility would be given to him, but a final call would be taken only by the PAC," said a party source.

The Kejriwal camp was represented by PAC members Sanjay Singh and senior leaders in the Delhi unit Ashish Khetan and Ashutosh while Ajit Jha and Anand Kumar put forth Yadav's point.

Another dissident leader, Prashant Bhushan was not present at the meeting, but was represented by Kumar and Jha.

The marathon sessions also saw both sides discussing the decision of the PAC to expand and contest in other states.

The discussion concentrated on clarity on the decisions taken by the PAC yesterday, which included expanding and contesting in other states and preparing an active list of volunteers.

While a decision was taken to prepare an active list of the party volunteers, Yadav's camp insisted that the list should be out in a month while the Kejriwal camp said it would at least take three months to do so.

The Yadav camp also asked to identify the states in which the party was going to contest polls and expand in near future and also identify the leaders who could be the faces of party in those states.

Another discussion that came up was appointing a Lokayukta at the state and district level to resolve issues, as per the party constitution.

Currently, the party has only one Lokpal and no Lokayukta at the state or district level.

To take the dialogue process forward, a meeting with Yadav and Ashutosh, Khetan and Ajit Jha has been fixed tomorrow morning while another meeting is being planned with Bhushan, sources said.

On his return to Delhi after a 12-day stay in Bengaluru for his treatment, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal instructed senior party members to open channels of talk and meet Yadav and Bhushan to bridge the rift in the party.

Following this, Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Khetan and Ashutosh met Yadav on late Monday night, which extended till wee hours of Tuesday.

The group also met representatives of Yadav yesterday and took the decided to hold further rounds of talks.

In signs of warming up, Yadav has lauded the party's Political Affairs Committee's decision to expand in other states.