Even as the mudslinging within the Aam Aadmi Party refuses to die down, its two leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, ousted from the national executive, appear to be laying the ground for the formation of a new political party.
However, they indicated that a meeting of volunteers would be convened first before any announcement is made.
Mr. Yadav, in a message on his Facebook page, said he and Mr. Bhushan had received hundreds of messages of support and solidarity that have “erased any insult that we may have suffered on the 28th.”
“We must therefore keep the spirit of the movement going at this difficult juncture. The questions are: how? what next? Some of the friends who met over the last two days felt that there should be a dialogue with like minded friends to answer these questions. Tentatively, the dialogue is scheduled for Ambedkar Jayanti, 14th of April 2015 somewhere close to Delhi,” his message said.
Mr. Bhushan indicated that the duo will not take legal action, either in the High Court or the Election Commission against their expulsion from the national executive but would rather focus now on channelling the positive energy of the party’s volunteers. Whether that is done through a political party or any other organisation remains to be seen. The meeting on April 14 is expected to include activist Medha Patkar, who quit the AAP in a show of solidarity with Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan, and Admiral L. Ramdas, who was removed as the party’s Lokpal.
Meanwhile, in yet another attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former party MLA Rajesh Garg, whom the party had recently suspended, on Tuesday alleged that Mr. Kejriwal would make people impersonate office staff of BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley and call MLAs to offer money for supporting the BJP.
“During the initial phase of government formation I got calls from someone who claimed to be calling from Arun Jaitley’s office offering Rs. 10 crore to support the BJP,” Mr. Garg claimed.
“I took a screen shot of the number and lodged a complaint with the police who arrested one person. Then I got a call from [AAP leader] Sanjay Singh asking me to withdraw the complaint. I didn’t withdraw it but they managed to get him released,” he alleged.
>Yadav sacked as spokesperson Meanwhile, AAP on Tuesday sacked Mr. Yadav as chief spokesperson of the party and Mr. Bhushan, Atishi Marlena and Anand Kumar as spokespersons.
