FirstpostEbook Dirtypoliticstoegoclashes-AllyouneedtoknowabouttheAAPbreakup FINAL 20150309071226

7/24/2019 FirstpostEbook Dirtypoliticstoegoclashes-AllyouneedtoknowabouttheAAPbreakup FINAL 20150309071226

1/50


2/50

Table of contents

Its ofcial: Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav lose keyposts within AAP

Bhushan, Yadav voted out of AAPs PAC, Kejriwals resignation as convener

rejected 04

Last minute drama behind Yadav, Bhushans ouster: Kejriwal played hardball,

threatened to quit 05

AAP rift: Bhushan, Yadav to stay in party, new roles as compromise 07

AAP crisis: Votes backing Yogendra, Bhushan in PAC leaves Kejriwal,

Sisodia red-faced 09YY and PB out of AAPs PAC: Heres how Twitter reacted 10

Instead of resigning as National Convenor, Kejriwal should step in to stop

AAP crisis 16

What will people say: Why India is up in arms over the Dec 16 BBC documentary 18

Not just Yadav, Bhushan: AAP gets ready to dump other left-leaning leaders 20

The Kejriwal vs Yadav Spat

Whats going on inside AAP: All you need to know about the Kejriwal vs Yadav

spat 23

The real battle within AAP: It is Kejriwal vs Bhushan; Sisodia vs Yadav 25

All out war on Yadav: Kejriwal tweets pain but this statesmanship is too late 27

Prashant Bhushan on allegations against him, Arvind Kejriwals serious

weakness and more 30

Reality or rumours? Heres what AAP leaders said about the rift in party 32

The ugly AAP: Battle against Yadav, Bhushan shows whats wrong with party 35

One man charisma: AAP will fall if Kejriwal keeps running the party alone 37

AAP rift: Did Yogendras ambition put him on a collision course with Kejriwal? 39AAP rift with Bhushan, Yadav is much ado about nothing: Kejriwal will win 41

Ashutosh conrms clash as Kejriwal, Yadav, Bhushan ght it out: Is AAP

imploding again? 43

Two camps in AAP, criticism over inner-party democracy: Partys internal lokpal 46

Yogendra Yadav on his way out of AAP? Rumoured rift with Kejriwal may be to

blame 48
http://www.firstpost.com/


3/50

Its ofcial: Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra

Yadav lose key posts within AAP


4/50

Bhushan, Yadav voted out of AAPs PAC,Kejriwals resignation as convener rejected

PTI, March 4, 2015

New Delhi: Senior AAP leaders PrashantBhushan and Yogendra Yadav, who

were on a collision course with partyConvener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Ke-

jriwal, were on Wednesday voted out of PoliticalAffairs Committee of the party, which has beenrocked by dissidence in recent days.

In a show-down in the party's 21-member Na-tional Executive (NE), supporters of Kejriwal

voted out Yadav and Bhushan by 11 to eightvotes. Kejriwal and Mayank Gandhi were notpresent at the meet.

Yadav and Bhushan's ouster from PAC camedays after the duo had raised red ag against

continuation of Kejriwal as National Conveneras also questioned his working style, evoking asharp reaction from Kejriwal supporters whoaccused Bhushan and his father Shanti Bhushanof wanting to have a "vice-like grip" on all party

wings, from PAC to policy committee to NE.

The two leaders left the stormy session after thedecision of the Executive. While Yadav main-tained that he would continue working as dedi-cated worker of the party, Bhushan left sayingthat a majority decision will prevail.

The NE also rejected Arvind Kejriwal's resigna-tion as National Convenor.

Later announcing the decisions of NE, AAPleader Kumar Vishwas said Yadav and Bhushan

will be given new roles.

"The party has decided to relieve them from theresponsibility as members of the PAC. They will

be assigned new role and responsibility," Vish-was said.

He said "personal opinions and personal differ-ences" will not come in the way of the unity ofthe party, which will deliver on its promises and

will not betray the trust of the people.Ahead of the meet, while Yadav had offered anolive branch to the party's top brass saying thequestion of Kejriwal staying as National Con-

vener has never been an issue while Bhushanhad said that he was "rm on ethics".

Both leaders have, in the past few days, had al-

leged that the three-year-old party has strayedfrom the core ideals of 'swaraj' (self-govern-ance) and transparency that set it apart.

Speaking to reporters after his removal, Yadavsaid, the party was created with "blood andsweat" of thousands of supporters whose trustshould not be betrayed.


5/50

Last minute drama behind Yadav, Bhushans ouster:

Kejriwal played hardball, threatened to quit

Sandipan Sharma, March 5, 2015

Drama, backroom intrigue, frantic calls,oor management, allegations, coun-ter-allegations and threats of exposes

and stings marked the meeting of the AamAadmi Party's national executive in Delhi onFriday.

In the end, the decision to oust Yogendra Yadavand Prashant Bhushan was taken by an 11-8majority. But the nal word came from ArvindKejriwal, who put his foot down and refused to

withdraw his resignation until the two seniorleaders were thrown out.

Though Kejriwal was not present at the venue,sources said he was contacted at a crucial junc-

ture when the members seemed to agree toa suggestion made by Yadav and Bhushan toreconstitute the body and hold fresh elections.The Delhi CM, however, was in no mood to

yield even an inch to those backing Yadav andBhushan.

The script for the removal of the duo was writ-ten much before the meeting began on Wednes-day afternoon on the outskirts of Delhi. Early inthe morning, AAP leader Pankaj Gupta report-edly called up Yadav and Bhushan to conveyto them that Kejriwal had quit the nationalconvenor's post and had refused to reconsiderthe decision unless some issues against the duo

were sorted out.

Later, three important members of the AAPwere sent to convey to Yadav and Bhushan thatthe national executive and members of the Del-hi unit had lost faith in them and that they stepdown to break the 'stalemate' within the party.

In response, Yadav and Bhushan suggestedthat fresh elections be held for the PAC. Both

volunteered not to contest. The intermediariesseemed amenable to the suggestion and it wasdecided that the idea would be discussed by theexecutive. In the meantime, Bhushan sent twomessages to Kejriwal, but he did not respond.

Before the meeting, there was some last-minutedrama. The Kejriwal faction counted its num-

bers and realised that it had ten people support-ing the decision to remove Yadav and Bhushan;

nine were opposed to it. (Apart from Kejriwal,Mayank Gandhi also opted out). Not willing totake a chance, the Kejriwal faction reportedlycalled up the Rajasthan unit of AAP and askedit to not send a particular member - they feared

would oppose the decision to oust Yadav andKejriwal - for the meeting. When they were toldthat he had already left to attend the meeting,the state unit was asked to send someone else -a member loyal to the Kejriwal faction. With the

last-minute 'management' done, the stage wasset for an 11-8 verdict.

When the meeting began, Manish Sisodiamoved the proposal for removing Yadav andBhushan. "Both of them have lost the faith ofthe PAC, the national convener and the Delhiunit. Since there is a stalemate, it has been de-cided to remove them from the PAC," he said inHindi. It was seconded by Sanjay Singh.

When the executive talked about consideringthe suggestion that the PAC be reconstitutedand fresh elections be held in which Yadav andBhushan will not participate, somebody called


6/50

up Kejriwal from the venue. When the Delhi CMrefused to accept the idea of a fresh election,only the proposal to remove Yadav and Bhushan

was put to vote. And that is when the fate of theduo was sealed.

In between, there were several heated argu-ments and allegations. Yadav was told aboutthe conversation he had with an Indian Expressreporter-taped by Kejriwal's close aide-in whichhe had discussed the schism within the AAPover the plans to contest in Haryana. They weretold about the leaked letters, accused of 'anti-party' activities.

None of the issues raised by Yadav and Bhush-an-selection of candidates, sourcing of funds,details of election expenses, one-person-one-

post principle-- were discussed at the meeting.

Kejriwal's resignation was rejected.

So, is this the end of the storm in the AAP? WillYadav and Bhushan be given fresh responsibili-ties?

By all indications, this is just the beginning ofan ugly battle within the AAP. In a few days,

more dirt is likely to fall out of the AAP cup-boards and there could be a lot of muck-rakingwithin the party.

According to sources present at the meeting,the AAP leaders seem to have conducted severalstings on Yadav and Bhushan. One of the AAPleaders apparently recorded a conversation be-tween Yadav and Kejriwal and is now threaten-ing to release it to the media.

The Kejriwal faction is unlikely to be too leni-ent with the eight members who objected to theouster of Yadav and Bhushan. They could be onthe party's hit-list next.

The ght-to-nish has just begun in Kejriwal'sAAP.


7/50

AAP rift:Bhushan, Yadav to stay inparty, new roles as compromise

Debobrat Ghose, March 5, 2015

New Delhi: Im the boss. That makes mydiktat on party matters nal ChiefMinister of Delhi and Convener of Aam

Aadmi Party Arvind Kejriwal has made it clear.

As expected, the National Executive (NE) of

AAP has voted out both senior leaders andmembers of the original core team Yogendra

Yadav and Prashant Bhushan of the Politi-cal Affairs Committee (PAC), the top decision-making body.

Out of 21 members, 19 participated in the vot-ing. It was a close ght as 11 voted against theduo and eight in favour. Simultaneously, on theexpected lines, the NE rejected the resignation

of Kejriwal.

Coming out of the meeting Kumar Vishwas,who headed the NE on Wednesday, said, "Allthe members are united with the party. The NEthrough voting discharged Yogendra Yadav andPrashant Bhushan of the PAC and now they will

be given new responsibilities. Arvind Kejriwalsresignation has been rejected. There were otherdiscussions on Mission Vistaar, partys discipli-nary committee etc."

The message of Vishwas was clear. Despitevoting in the NE, Kejriwal and his loyalistshave successfully booted both the dissenters

out of this top decision-making body. And, bymentioning about the disciplinary committee,

Vishwas subtly gave a hint that any anti-party read anti-Kejriwal voice will be ruthlesslycurbed.

AAP's ideologue and current chief spokespersonYogendra Yadav has also lost his post of chiefspokesperson.

Three key issues on which hours of stormy dis-cussion and debate took place were:

The resignation tendered by Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal from the post of AAPs con-vener.

The ouster of two senior leaders YogendraYadav and Prashant Bhushan - from the Na-tional Executive.

On whether an alternative position should begiven to these two leaders under a 'compromise'

brokered ahead of the meeting and during thebrainstorming session.

Ahead of this crucial meeting, speculations wererife that both Yadav and Bhushan might even

be shown the door as a section close to Kejri-wal and the Deputy CM, Manish Sisodia were

strongly lobbying for it. The war was full blownon social media and Twitter.

However, party insiders told Firstpost that acompromise formula would be drawn, which

will be more a win-win situation through whichegos of respective individuals and groups

would be taken care of". And it happened.

The formula of compromise:

Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan out ofPAC.

They have been given other responsibilities.


8/50

Yadav to head partys Kisan Morcha and Bhush-an as a member of Lokpal.

NE rejects Kejriwals resignation.

"Theres no surprise element in the outcome ofthe NE meeting. Everything was pre-decided.

And, it was also on expected that Kejriwal wontattend the NE. He put his coterie at the fore-front to ght the battle. And, the coterie ensured

whatever Kejriwal wanted to shunt Bhushanand Yadav; and retain his position as convener.His resignation was a sham, a drama, the art hehas perfected," remarked a former member ofone of the key decision-making bodies in AAP.

It all started in the morning, much before theNE meeting was scheduled.

The army of thousands of highly motivated andcommitted volunteers, who made it possible forthe new political outt to make its mark in theDelhi assembly election 2013 and again helpedit win Delhi with a stupendous victory on 10February this year, was back in action.

Outside the resort at Kapashera village border-ing Delhi-Gurgaon in the north-western part of

Delhi, where the National Executive meeting ofAAP was in progress, hundreds of volunteersgathered much ahead of scheduled time de-manding for an amicable solution. This band of

young volunteers who came from various partsof Delhi and Gurgaon donning partys trade-mark topi, were holding small placards in theirhands displaying the old adage United westand, Divided we fall.

While, the meeting was in progress, variousgroups of volunteers in large numbers werefound waiting impatiently for the outcome.

"I'm only a volunteer, a foot soldier like manyothers in this team. I pray for an amicable solu-tion so that the party can get over the presentcrisis. We want the party to remain intact andserve Delhi," said Shailendra, who was fromGurgaon.

Manveer, who sounded optimistic, was quickto add, "Neither are we from any camp nor do

we believe in the existence of any sub-groupswithin AAP. We want all our leaders to remain

in the party. All the volunteers who have gath-ered here want the party to remain strong andunited. Hope something good will emerge out ofthis meeting."

Besides volunteers, another key gure thatemerged on Wednesday in brokering the com-promise formula between the two factions andplayed an important role in combating the crisis

was Kumar Vishwas.

According to sources and eye-witnesses, Vish-was was active right from the beginning of themeeting. Rather it would be more pertinent tosay that this poet-turned-politician had beenmaking hectic parleys over the last three days to

broker a deal and keep the party intact.

It's a known fact that Vishwas is strongly withArvind Kejriwal as a backup and it became evi-dent during the party's poll victory celebration.

Vishwas with his wife by his side was presentthroughout, with Kejriwals family whether atthe AAPs Patel Nagar ofce or at the Kejriwalsresidence. He escorted Kejriwal from his resi-dence to Ramlila Maidan.

"After the 2013 assembly election, Vishwas went

into hibernation for some time, because he gotinto minor controversies due to his impromptuspeech. But, now he has composed himself andis a strong support to Kejriwal. Moreover he hasa clean image," an AAP member said.


9/50

AAP crisis:Votes backing Yogendra, Bhushanin PAC leaves Kejriwal, Sisodia red-faced

Tarique Anwar, March 5, 2015

New Delhi: High prole Aam AadmiParty (AAP) leaders Yogendra Yadavand Prashant Bhushan were removed

from the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), thesupreme decision-making body of the party at ahighly charged a meeting of the partys NationalExecutive on Wednesday. This was expected.The Arvind Kejriwal-Manish Sisodia camp hadthe numbers to ensure what was pre-decided.

What they did not expect though were the eightvotes against them.

It is a defeat of the Manish Sisodia group. Theeight votes in favour of Bhushan and Yadavhave made it clear that 42 percent of membersof the National Executive still want the duo in

the decision-making process. It proves theirpopularity and acceptance in the party despitethe negative campaign launched against them

by other party leaders, a participant at themeeting told Firstpost.

The duo was shunted out days after they raisedvoice against the growing personality cult inthe party and the working style of Kejriwal, thenational convenor of the party. The oppositiondid not go down well in the party and the sup-porters of the latter accused Yadav of indulgingin anti-party activities. Allegations were madethat Bhushan and his father Shanti Bhushan

were trying to get full control over the party by

dominating all organisational bodies.

After a red ag was raised against Kejriwalholding two posts simultaneously, the chiefminister resigned as the national convener ofthe party this morning but it was rejected by theNE.

Explaining the long-standing rift within theparty, the source said, The ght was not be-tween Kejriwal and Yadav. It was a battle of

vested interests and high moral and ethics. Thelatter had problem with the coterie of peoplesurrounding Kejriwal for their vested interest.He had pointed it out in the very rst letter hehad shot off to the party. The NE decision hasalso approved Yadavs reservation.

Finally, who emerged as the real winner?

Sisodia was against Yadav and he was openlydefending his opponent Naveen Jai Hind. Butthe NEs support to Yadav has rejected the kindof politics being practiced by the deputy chiefminister. However, the stature of Yadav is stillunaffected, said the source adding that theparty will have to assign him a respectable po-sition in the party.

There are reports that Yadav may head the

AAPs Kisan Morcha (farmers cell), whileBhushan might be included in the partys Lok-pal. The two leaders left the stormy session afterthe decision of the NE. While Yadav maintainedthat he would continue working as dedicated

worker of the party, Bhushan left saying that amajority decision will prevail.

I will continue to be in AAP and do whateverresponsibility the party gives me. I will workas a dedicated worker of the party, Yadav toldreporters.


10/50

YY and PB out of AAPs PAC:Heres how Twitter reacted

FP Staff, March 4, 2015

Ending days of speculation, the Aam Aadmi Party's national executive has nally decided torelieve party leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the party's political af-fairs committee but stopped short of announcing what role they would be given.

For now, both the leaders maintain they continue to be members of AAP and are willing to take upany position assigned to them by the party leadership.

But while the party leadership may have sorted out their differences for the moment, party volun-teers on social media were visibly upset and called for the two emerging factions to unite and endtheir differences.

Indicating their understandable frustration over the ongoing power tussle, YY and PB - YogendraYadav and Prashant Bhushan - has been trending on Twitter over the last few days with many call-ing for a #UnitedAAP while others using the opportunity to criticise YY and PB. Others were plainfunny.

Here are some of the top tweets:


11/50


12/50


13/50


14/50


15/50


16/50

Instead of resigning as National Convenor,

Kejriwal should step in to stop AAP crisis


Arvind Kejriwal still has time to stave offa crisis in the party where, amid publicacrimony, two leaders who gave a whole

lot of intellectual dimension to the Aam AadmiParty Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan may face the prospect of being asked to leavethe Political Affairs Committee.

Even if it were simply a reallocation of work, themessage that would go out, is that the top tier ofthe party is unable to hold together.

All he needs to do is bring in the major actorsin the unseemly dramatics being played out inDelhi, and since he is unwell, to his home, havea quiet word with them and resolve the crisis.That would reafrm his leadership mettle.

The contending sides are not asking for hisouster, Yadav and Bhushan are not going to ar-rive with knives hidden under their robes. Theyare reasonable people but are seeking an em-

bedding of principles which would sustain thepartys differentiator.

The word bhagoda, which went missing after

the massive pro-AAP verdict, is returning to thepublic domain. Scroll.in has already used it inthe headline today when analysing the develop-ments today: The Daily Fix: Bhagoda? Kejriwal

to go on leave while the dirty work begins at bigAAP meet.

His intervention would have been crucial; hecannot remain aloof by tweeting, I refuse to bedrawn in this ugly battle.

The ongoing battle is indeed ugly, where thechief spokesperson, Yadav, is being hit on a

daily basis by a barrage of accusations includingthe revelations of a sting of a reporter to ex-pose him of anti-party attitude. By his silence,Kejriwal has only allowed the battle betweenthose who support his supremacy and those

who want a complete democratisation of thedecision-making process to escalate. It couldeven imply complicity.

Democratisation is not an evil and democracy

transparent, felt, and purposeful is what theAAP is all about.

The votaries of that are not to be seen as mis-chief-makers. In his absence from the crucialmeeting today, he allows what can be calledthe dogs of war at the top tiers of the party.

When the party, despite the election mandate,is still forming, trying to get in place systemsthat should make it different from others, thisaloofness is dangerous. Dangerous to the partysfounding principles.

People who reposed such faith as they did byvoting in a huge mandate would be aghast atthe developments that have unravelled so far.

A Times of India report that it could lead AAPtowards self-destruction is an eventuality thatshould not be ignored.

The party had regained condence of the voters

once; it cannot do so every time. If it thinks arisk can be taken now because of the majority ithas, it is ill-advised.


17/50

Voters are becoming touchy these days, and theassumption that the party can sustain the faithof the cadre and the voters by a good govern-ment may be misplaced. Kejriwals governancemodel has borough level activism at is core andrequires the involvement of all members electedto the legislature. They cannot spur activism

with a discredited level of leadership who foughtfor partisan purposes supremacy of Kejriwalabove everyone else.


18/50

What will people say:Why India is up in

arms over the Dec 16 BBC documentary

Sanjay Singh, March 4, 2015

The outcome of the Aam Aadmi PartysNational Executive meeting, scheduledtoday (4 March), has probably been

scripted well in advance. Barring some last-minute compromises, it is more than likely thatPrashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav willeither be on their way out of the party or effec-tively sidelined. The initiative currently remains

with the Arvind Kejriwal camp.

Their removal from the all-powerful, nine-member Political Affairs Committee (PAC),assuming it happens, on charges of conspiringagainst the party (Kejriwal) and trying to sabo-tage its prospects in the Delhi assembly elec-tion will dull the halo around the 27-month-oldparty that has been riding high on its recentlandslide victory.

It is difcult to nd a parallel to what has beenhappening in AAP in recent political memory.The Janata Partys internal bickering after itslandslide win in 1977, which led to its collapsein 1980, comes closest to the AAP crisis. Thenature of the tussle then and the issues involved

were, of course, different in scale and time.

Whatever be the nal verdict of the party onBhushan and Yadav whether they are allowed

to survive in AAP as lameducks or thrown out -the damage to AAPs image has been done. The

AAP dissenters were seen as the partys con-science-keepers. But it has now come to a situa-tion where only one side can win the Kejriwalside is the obvious one.

The war within is not about the ideals and prac-tices that this party wanted to follow, but about

who will control it. There is no doubt that Ke-jriwal is the partys strongest crowd-puller, andwhat his supporters are gunning for is givinghim overwhelming power to take the party togreater heights. In this, AAP is now heading forthe same kind of single-leader situation as everyother party. Kejriwal will be to AAP what Soniaand Rahul Gandhi are for the Congress, Mu-layam Singh Yadav for SP, Mayawati for BSP,Nitish Kumar for JD(U), Lalu Yadav for RJD,

Naveen Patnaik for BJD, Mamata Banerjee forTMC.

Kejriwals opponents want AAP to be based onthe twin principles of democracy and swaraj,as Yogendra Yadav said in a recent interview,and give up its high command culture, asPrashant Bhushan has said. But whichever waythe conict is resolved, it is clear that the partycannot abandon its dependence on Kejriwaland his rising personality cult. Kejriwal is AAPsnational convenor.

The dictionary meaning of convenor wouldsuggest that Kejriwals real job is to merely callpeople together for a meeting of a committee.By that denition, his current job prole is notthat of arbiter of AAPs fortunes or even partypresident. The founding fathers perhaps pre-ferred the title `convenor to president becausethey wanted to send out the message that the

party would be run on the basis of collectiveleadership and collective conscience. Thus, theirerstwhile white caps carried two legends: MainHun Anna and Humein Chahiye Swaraj.


19/50

Bhushan, Yadav and Admiral L Ramdas,through their letters, are reminding Kejriwalthat he should remain a mere convenor, or evenleave the post to one of them. They would liketo have a decisive say on issues, especially thoseon ethics and probity. Their argument, at leastfor public consumption, is that the party wasfounded to provide alternate politics, not just

become an alternate party.

But the level of distrust between the two sideshas now become too wide to paper over easily.

With loyalists on the two sides giving their ownversions to the media and in tweets, the gap canonly get wider in the coming days.

At todays meeting, Arvind Kejriwal will bemissing. Since there is no number two, no co-

convenor in the party, it is not clear who willpreside over the meeting. In AAPs website,Gopal Rai (minister in Kejriwals cabinet) comessecond in the list of nine PAC members. Theother members are Ilias Azmi, Kumar Vishwas,Manish Sisodia, Pankaj Gupta, Prashant Bhush-an, Sanjay Singh and Yogendra Yadav.

Kejriwal is admittedly unwell. Diabetes and itsconsequent problems have made him home-

bound. A Kejriwal loyalist termed Yadav asgangrene for the party. He also said that Ya-dav will only be bad for Kejriwals health bothmetaphorically and in actual terms. Yogendra

Yadavs negativity and falsehood will occupyso much of Arvinds mindspace that it will ruinhis health. Its time this gangrene is removed.If Arvind and the party have to return to goodhealth thats the only recourse left, he toldFirstpost.

Kejriwals tweets yesterday were loaded: Irefuse to be drawn into this ugly battle. Willconcentrate only on Delhi's governance. I willnot let (the) trust of people of Delhi break.Iam deeply hurt and pained by what is going onin the party. This is betrayal of trust that Delhiposed in us.

He didnt clarify who was betraying Delhistrust, or who was causing him hurt and pain.

By saying I refuse to be drawn into this uglybattle, he may be effectively asking his sup-porters to x the problem before he returns.

In an interview to NDTV India, Yadav ratherremorsefully hinted that the Kejriwal camp mayhave made up its mind. Lagata Hai Man Bangaya hai, Kuchal Do, Masal Do, Doosri AwajKo. (Looks like their mind is made up. It is nowabout crushing the other voice).

After watching the proceedings of the NationalExecutive, choreographed or otherwise, fromhis Kaushambi, Ghaziabad, residence, Kejriwal

will take off for Bangalore on a 10-day naturop-athy course to contain his diabetes and otherrelated health problems. He will virtually beincommunicado till 15 March, possibly obliviousto the muck his loyalists and challengers mightraise with greater ferocity.

The last time he had gone there with Anna,

he had felt greatly relieved of his diabetes andstress-related problems. Since then he has lefthis mentor Anna. This time he will be therealone, in total solitude, hoping for relief, not

just from diabetes, but also from the pain of be-trayal. But then, as someone had earlier jokinglyposted on Whatsapp, Yogendra Yadav speaksso sweetly that the person he talks to wouldget infected by sugar. A diabetic Kejriwal maydecide that so much sugar in his system may not

be good.


20/50

Not just Yadav, Bhushan:AAP gets ready

to dump other left-leaning leaders


New Delhi: The Left is being shown thedoor within the Aam Aadmi Party.The party is likely to throw out not

only high prole faces like Yogendra Yadav andPrashant Bhushan but also others such as pro-fessor Anand Kumar, Amit Jha and Ilyas Azmi,said a party insider when approached for updateon the ongoing feud in the party.

The fate of these leaders would be decided atthe crucial National Executive meeting today.

AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal has already been empowered to recon-stitute the Political Affairs Committee (PAC),

paving the way for the almost conrmed exitsof Yadav and Bhushan, including others fromdecision-making bodies of the party the PACand the NE.

Yadav and Bhushan are two of the many lead-ers with socialist leanings who may be sidelinedor ousted from the AAP. They are not the onlyones. The sword is hanging on Kumar, Jha and

Azmi as well, he told Firstpost.

This would be a great loss to the party, headded. Expressing anguish and displeasure atthe deepening crisis, he said, There is nothingcalled internal democracy in the party. Whatev-

er Arvind (Kejriwal) says and Manish (Sisodia)wants is imposed upon the rest. Everyone hasto accept that if he or she has to survive in theparty.

He alleged the AAP has transformed into aconventional political party. It started with the

AAP not involving voters in candidate selectionprocess. Average assets per candidate becoming

around Rs 5 crore was a sign of things to come.Now with letter wars, e-mail leaks and camps,the AAP's transformation into a conventionalpolitical party looks complete, he said.

Most of the disgruntled in AAP had problemswith Kejriwal and his dictatorial style of func-tioning. Advocate Ashok Aggarwal, former AAPnational executive member, even described theparty as a private limited company.

I joined AAP because I thought it stood forstrong principles and for the benet the lastman in the society. But lately, I have foundthings changing and the party has lost its objec-tives and goals. And nally, I left the party, hetold Firstpost.

Asked what Yadav, Bhushan and other seniorleaders mean to the party, he replied, They

should be given respect as they are ideologuesof the party. Their ouster will cause a majordent in the partys image.

I have high regards for Yogendraji and Bhush-anji but when I tried to express my reservationsthat a group of individuals were trying take overthe party and the aam aadmi (common man)

vision had taken a back seat, the former wasnever allowed to speak. At that time, both werein the good books of Kejriwal. What they havesown they are reaping now, he said.

The latest episode, he said, was anticipated asthe party has been taken over by institutional-


21/50

ised vested interest.

One of the founding members, who left theparty last year, launched a scathing attack onthe present leadership and said requestinganonymity that expecting accountability fromliars having vested interest is nothing but fool-ishness.

The party has no respect for seniors and in-tellectuals. What is the stature and intellectof those who are raising their voices againstBhushan and Yadav? he questioned.

Without naming anyone, the person said theAAP has been hijacked by people who haveno ideology. Given the kind of politics beingpracticed in the AAP, it appears that the party

has been hijacked by people having vested inter-ests. They do not want leaders with high moralstandards, said the person.

Karan Singh, founder of AAPs breakaway groupAAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM), whichexposed the alleged funding scam ahead ofDelhi polls, told Firstpost, Kejriwal and com-pany cannot afford people becoming popular. Ithink Arvindji became insecure when genuine

concerns were raised by Bhushan and Yadav.

Rubbishing Dilip Pandeys allegation thatPrashant Bhushan, his father Shanti Bhushanand Yogendra Yadav provided patronage to

AAP Volunteer Action Manch, it founder KaranSingh said, It was our investigation. We just

went through the page of the partys website,which displays its funding details. Our doubtswere cemented by their refusal to give us the

minutes of the PAC meeting, in which the fourdubious transactions were discussed. We col-lected facts and presented them before themedia to expose the hollowness of their claimsof honesty, transparency and accountability.

The dispute in the party has left its volunteersand sympathisers disappointed and demoral-ised. The allegations levelled by the party lead-ers against Yogendra sir and Bhushan sir haveleft an impression that when they cannot givedue respect to their seniors, what can we expectfrom them, said a volunteer of the party.

Amit Kumar, who headed the grievance cell(water and electricity), set up by the previous49-day AAP government, told Firstpost, As

Arvindji described himself as a baniya (an occu-pational community of merchants), he does not

want to share his prots. He does not want to gobeyond Delhi because he will have to delegatepowers. By doing so, he may lose his grip overthe party and this is something which he cannotafford. He wants full control over the party.

Our heads hanged in shame, when his coteriewent to the extent of launching personal attackon Shanti sir and his family, he said.


22/50

The Kejriwal vs Yadav Spat


23/50

Whats going on inside AAP:All you need to

know about the Kejriwal vs Yadav spat


New Delhi: As the Aam Aadmi Partygets embroiled in a fresh, and by far itsmost serious, bout of factional tussle,

the chances of it imploding from internal dis-sension gets bigger. The party may yet manageto nd peace but the urry of allegations andcounter allegations involving Yogendra Yadav,the partys ideologue and only popular intel-lectual face, and Prashant Bhushan, the partys

conscience keeper, in public space may leave alasting impact on the two-year old outt.

With the letters of Yadav and Bhushan post the26 February National Executive meet becomingpublic, social media is abuzz with conspiracytheories; and a slander campaign against theduo appears to be in full swing. There are ru-mours that these senior leaders may be on their

way out from the top decision-making bodiesand that the other faction has taken over totalcontrol of the party.

Firstpost spoke to several sources in both thefactions and tried to make sense of the allega-tions and rebuttals. Here they go:

Allegation: Post-Lok Sabha election 2014, whenAAP and its convener Arvind Kejriwal had beenfacing severe criticism, Yogendra Yadav target-ed him personally and resigned publicly.

The counter: Yadavs resignation had nothingto do with Lok Sabha results. At no stage, for-mally or informally, did he or Prashant Bhushan

blame Kejriwal for the poor show. In fact, theletter of resignation of the former did not evenrefer to the results.

Allegation: Instead of accepting the blame forhis wrong vote share projections in Haryana

and the rest of India, which misguided theparty, Yadav sought to put the onus of failure onKejriwal. He had told the party that in Haryana,

AAP would get 23 percent of the votes but it gotonly 4 percent.

Counter: Yadav did not conduct any survey forthe party. In fact, the party did not have moneyto conduct an all-India survey. He engaged theagency - Cicero on behalf of the party to con-

duct surveys in Haryana and UP in January-February 2014. In UP it showed that the party

was nowhere in the reckoning. In Haryana, thesurvey was done before AAP resigned in Delhiand it showed the partys vote share at 22 per-cent. This fact was conrmed by other inde-pendent polls at that time. The partys fortunein Haryana took a nose-dive after the resigna-tion in Delhi. All this survey data and analysis

were shared in a meeting with all the Lok Sabhacandidates on 5-6 July. Sources close to Yadavdemanded that those making the allegationmust produce proof to justify this allegation.

Allegation: It was the Prashan Bhushan-Yogen-dra Yadav-Shanti Bhushan trio that kept press-ing the party to contest more number of LokSabha seats (400+). It led to the partys humili-ating defeat and loss of face.

Counter: Neither Yadav nor Prashant Bhushan

did advocate contesting 400-plus seats. In theaftermath of the success in the Delhi assemblyelection, Yadav had submitted a strategy paperthat advocated contesting about 100 seats (all


24/50

seats in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, all seats inNCR and other metro areas and symbolic con-tests outside that). The suggestion about con-testing nearly all the seats was made by ShantiBhushan in the National Executive (NE) meet-ing conducted on 2-3 January, 2014. This wasunanimously approved by the NE including byKejriwal himself, who endorsed the suggestionin the meeting by saying Lets go for Broke.Since the proceedings of this meeting wererecorded, the supporters of Yadav and Bhushanasked, "will the party please release the record-ing to conrm facts about this matter in thatmeeting?"

Allegation: In 2014, Prashant Bhushan andYadav reportedly supported AAPs splintergroup AVAM (Aam Aadmi Volunteer Action

Manch). Shanti Bhushan issued two videos insupport of AVAM, which had locked horns withKejriwal and the AAPs Delhi unit. Later, duringDelhi assembly election 2015, AVAM had lev-elled charges of money laundering against the

AAP.

Counter: Both Bhushan and Yadav never joinedShanti Bhushan in supporting AVAM andtheres not an iota of truth in this. When, an

AVAM leader contacted Yadav, the latter re-fused to join the cause and brought it to Kejriw-als notice but Yadav refused to join their cause.On the other hand, Prashant Bhushan dealt

with AVAM in his capacity as chairman of Na-tional Disciplinary Committee, since its leaderKaran Singh had appealed to the National Disci-plinary Committee against his expulsion.

Yes, I had appealed to the National Discipli-nary Committee, as the AAP had levelled falsecharges against me and no one was ready tohear us the volunteers, who were shown thedoor. Not only that, the party also used forgedSMS to malign us and used it as an excuse to

expel me, Karan Singh told Firstpost. Bhushanfound critical evidence used to expel KaranSingh - a forged SMS and insisted that the partyshould track down the source of the said SMS.


25/50

The real battle within AAP:It is Kejriwal

vs Bhushan; Sisodia vs Yadav


New Delhi: The exit of senior leaders

Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushanfrom the Political Affairs Committee

(PAC) and the National Executive of the AamAadmi Party is almost certain. If sources closeto the latest developments are to be believed,a formal announcement is expected any timesoon. Both are top decision-making bodies ofthe party.

AAPs national convenor Arvind Kejriwalwants both Bhushan and Yadav out of the PACand the National Executive and he has alreadymade it clear that the party will have to decide

between him and the duo. A formal announce-ment in this regard will be made at a meeting on

Wednesday, a party insider told Firstpost.

According to the source, while Kejriwal hasproblems with Bhushan, his close associate anddeputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia,is not comfortable with Yadav.

In a letter dated 26 February, Bhushan hadslammed Kejriwal for overturning collectivedecisions of the party and compromising basic

principles of the political outt. He had writ-ten that the AAP is also adopting a one-man-centric approach like other traditional parties.He also accused the partys leaders of making

surreptitious efforts to form the governmentin Delhi with Congress support before the dis-solution of the last assembly, despite public pos-turing to the contrary.

We must also recognise that we have falteredon several counts We have not even put ouraccounts on a website. We have put our dona-tions, but not expenses, he wrote.

Earlier, his father Shanti Bhushan, one of thefounding members of the party, had said thatKejriwal should not hold two posts that of thenational convenor of the party and chief minis-ter.

On February 26, Kejriwal had offered to resignas national convenor but it was rejected. It wasfollowed by a move to empower him to recon-

stitute the PAC, paving the way for the exit ofYadav and Bhushan from the political decision-making processes.

Recollecting the real problem between Yadavand Sisodia, a party source said, The rift withinthe party deepened after Yadav walked outof the PAC meeting held in January this yearcalled for candidate selection ahead of polls. He

was expressing his displeasure at a few ticketaspirants close to Manish Sisodia but it wasignored."

"Kumar Vishwas and Ilyas were sent to mediatewith Yadav. In the mean time, Sisodia moved amotion requesting the PAC to sack the Yadav-Bhushan duo as they were creating troublesand wanted to impose their ideology on thepartys decision, the source who was present inthe meeting told Firstpost.

The ugly ght between the AAP factions cameout in the open in June last year with the emer-gence of a letter from Sisodia to Yadav in whichthe former had accused him of fomenting 'fac-


26/50

tional ghts' within the party and gunning forAAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

"In fact, Sisodia wants full control over theparty and does not want people like Yadav andBhushan who carry an ideological baggage withthem," he said.

Both Yadav and Bhushan have offered to quitthe PAC but have drawn the 20-member panelsattention to their demands for organisationalreforms.

"Yogendraji wants more frequent meetings ofbodies like the National Executive and transpar-ency should be reected in all decision-making

bodies of the party, the source added.

Several attempts to contact Bhushan and Yadavfailed because they did not respond to calls.

Now, the inghting within the party has intensi-ed to the extent that leaders are openly tradingcharges against each other.

Party spokesperson Ashutosh tweeted on Mon-day, There is decisive churning in AAP. It'sclash of ideas between ultra left who demand

referendum in Kashmir and pragmatic politicsof welfarism.

The charge seemed to be directed at Yadav andBhushan, who are known for their pro-Left

views. The latter had earlier advocated that thegovernment should hold a referendum in Kash-mir to resolve the issues of the valley.

Another damning remark came from partyleader Dilip Pandey who alleged that PrashantBhushan, his father Shanti Bhushan and Yo-gendra Yadav provided patronage to the Aam

Aadmi Volunteers Morcha (AVAM), a bodyoated by disgruntled AAP members.

The trio (Yadav and Bhushans) facilitated theformation of an anti-party forum called AVAM.There is substantial proof to show that Shanti

ji and Prashant gave legal and all other kindsof assistance to AVAM to carry out activitiesagainst the AAP, he said in a letter to the party.

Regular meetings between AVAM membersand the trio were held at Bhushans residence.

When party members like Khetan pleaded withthe Bhushans to stop supporting AVAM, they

were told by Prashant that for him AVAM waslike a trade union within the party and he sawnothing wrong in aiding and assisting AVAM,he added.

Another party leader, Sanjay Singh, said onMonday that, Attempts are being made to re-move Arvind Kejriwal. People in the party havemade a joke of us.


27/50

All out war on Yadav:Kejriwal tweetspain but this statesmanship is too late

Arun George & Lakshmi Chaudhry, March 3, 2015

After 24 hours of allegations and counter-allegations, Arvind Kejriwal has nally spoken upon Twitter about the ongoing civil war within AAP.

The statesman-like tone comes as a relief afterthe unrelentingly nasty rhetoric, but is it too lit-tle, too late? Also: Do his tweets reect a belatedrecognition that the tactics used by his support-ers against his critics may result instead in someserious blowback.

AAP leader Yogendra Yadav has been on shakyground since his letter to the party after the2014 general election debacle went public.Over the past year, there has been a persistent

nagging sense that he and Arvind Kejriwal arenot on the same page when it comes to politi-cal strategy or process. Over the past month,the two men would often make contradictorystatements about AAP's plan to go national, forinstance. So it isn't surprising that the rumours

of discord have nally come into public view,but what is surprising is how quickly the rowhas turned ugly with Kejriwal supporters openlytargeting Yadav and his reputation.


28/50

The latest such weapon is a recording with ajournalist in which she reportedly says that shehad received information for an article from theformer psephologist.

Bibhav Kumar, who is presently the personalsecretary to AAP Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-

wal had reportedly called then Hindu reporterChander Suta Dogra over a piece that appearedin the paper in which she had said that theHaryana unit of the AAP was prepared to con-test the state elections in 2014 but had beenprevented from doing so by national convenorKejriwal.

According to the Indian Express report, on therecording, Kumar is heard calling Dogra claim-ing that there were factual errors to the piece .

A claim she refutes, saying that the statementshad been made by a top AAP leader to her andother journalists.

On being asked who it was, Dogra is reportedlyheard saying, "Yogendra Yadav had called

three or four journalists for a breakfast meet-ing."

Delhi party secretary Dilip Pandey in his letteraccusing Yadav of "anti-party" activities hadcited the same recording.

In a separate Indian Express piece, Dogra saysthat after the meeting she had been told thatthey couldn't quote Yadav on the party unit'splan in Haryana but could use it in other pieces.

She had then spoken to other AAP leaders be-fore writing her piece.

She writes of the Kumar phone call:

"He said that the AAP was not considering re-butting my report, because that would amountto washing its dirty linen in public. Beforeringing off, he told me that some people wereharming the party from within. At no pointduring our conversation did he inform me that

I was being recorded."

She said AAP leaders had later shown heremails from the national executive whichproved that the state unit had been prepared tocontest the polls.

Sting operations are nothing new to the AAPand in his rst term as chief minister Kejriwalhad frequently asked the public to conduct stingoperations on those seeking bribes. So it isn'tsurprising that the leadership would record

a conversation with a journalist. However,making the tape public in a smear camnpaignagainst one of their own leaders smacks of uglydesperation.

The anti-Yogendra Yadav and PrashantBhushan unit of the party have been on anall out offensiveagainst all anti-Kejriwal dis-senters. AAP leader Ashutosh, using languagemore typical of a Modi supporter, tried to paint

Prashant Bhushan as an 'ultra left' ideologuewho was "demanding" a referendum in Kashmir-- the last being a gross distortion of Bhushan'sstance.

In his letter to the national executive, Delhiparty secretary Dilip Pandey had accused Yadavof wanting to unseat Arvind Kejriwal as nationalconvenor only to take the post himself.

Another leader Ashish Khetan got even morepersonal, tweeting today in another direct refer-ence to Prashant Bhushan:

Those who are oating the ridiculous one manparty theory wanted to make AAP one familyparty.

Ashish Khetan (@AashishKhetan) March 3,2015

Father son daughter trio of Shanti Prashant &Shalini wanted to have a vice-like grip on allparty wings, from PAC to policy committee toNE
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/kejriwal-aide-called-to-trash-yadavs-version-didnt-say-conversation-was-being-recorded/http://www.firstpost.com/politics/whats-going-on-inside-aap-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-kejriwal-vs-yadav-spat-2131099.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/ashutosh-confirms-clash-as-kejriwal-yadav-bhushan-fight-it-out-is-aap-imploding-again-2130519.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/ashutosh-confirms-clash-as-kejriwal-yadav-bhushan-fight-it-out-is-aap-imploding-again-2130519.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/ashutosh-confirms-clash-as-kejriwal-yadav-bhushan-fight-it-out-is-aap-imploding-again-2130519.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/ashutosh-confirms-clash-as-kejriwal-yadav-bhushan-fight-it-out-is-aap-imploding-again-2130519.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/whats-going-on-inside-aap-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-kejriwal-vs-yadav-spat-2131099.htmlhttp://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/kejriwal-aide-called-to-trash-yadavs-version-didnt-say-conversation-was-being-recorded/http://www.firstpost.com/


29/50

Ashish Khetan (@AashishKhetan) March 3,2015

That the Kejriwal camp has gone this negativethis fast is all the more surprising given the eas-ily predicted outcome of this ght. As R Jagan-nathan notes:

No political party anywhere in India has suc-ceeded in capturing power without a single

powerful leader at the top. AAP under Kejriwalhas recognised this reality and this is why his

personality looms above the rest. The rest cancarp and grumble, but only Kejriwal matters

for AAPs mass connect right now. It was theprojection of Kejriwal as CM that played a bigpart in AAPs landslide win over BJP in lastmonths assembly elections. Collective leader-

ship did not contribute much to the win.

But if such a pruning of the ranks is inevitable,it is all the more foolish for Kejriwal to allowthis ugly public row and this early in his tenure-- his second after he self-destructed over thespace of a bare 49 days in the rst one. Surely,the overriding imperative here ought to be to re-assure his many supporters who voted not justfor change but also stability.


30/50

Prashant Bhushan on allegations against him,

Arvind Kejriwals serious weakness and more

FP Politics, March 3, 2015

Facing action over his alleged anti-partyactivities, lawyer and AAP memberPrashant Bhushan today said that he

had no intention of leaving the party and wouldonly do so it if it failed to adhere to its foundingprinciples. He also spoke about a breakdown incommunication, how Kejriwal said it was nec-essary to compromise in electoral politics andother matters.

Here's a sum up of what he said in an exclusiveinterview to NDTV:

On leaving the party

The lawyer said that it was irrelevant whetherhe and Yogendra Yadav would remain in the innational executive or Political Affairs Commit-tee and that people shouldn't have to bend to

the party's high command like in other parties.

"If the party remains true to its founding prin-ciples it is of no consequence whether Yogendra

Yadav and I are in it," he said.

He said that he wasn't leaving the party ahead

of the 4 March meeting that will ultimately de-cide his fate, adding that he just wanted to keepthe party committed to its founding ideals.

"If I believe that this party is irretrievably on thepath of other parties I will have nothing to do

with it," he said.

On the Delhi elections

Bhushan said there was evidence that the AAPhad slipped from its founding ideals and therehad been 'some slippage' in transparency, in-

cluding accepting of donations.

"There was a lapse in our part in not checkingon companies before accepting donations," hesaid, adding that he didn't believe there had

been any 'hanky-panky'.

Bhushan said that he had campaigned for theparty in a couple of rallies ahead of the Delhielection but had largely been unhappy with the

candidate selection process.

"I did campaign...I was very busy in courts attime. I was quite unhappy with the manner in

which candidate selection took place," Bhushansaid.

"Arvind has said we have to make compromisesin electoral politics but I feel that approach maynot be correct," Bhushan said.

The senior lawyer added that he had not beenprivy to any talks that were allegedly beingheld with the Congress by the AAP government

before the elections were declared earlier thisyear. But he was rm that he didn't endorse theBJP in any way.

"If you look at all my public utterances I havebeen saying for the last decade that BJP is com-munal, corrupt," Bhushan said.

He said it was absurd to say that he was closeto the BJP or supported it in any way and hadmerely made a courtesy call to Arun Jaitley fol-


31/50

lowing a surgery.

He also said that he didn't share his father's en-dorsement of Kiran Bedi or his views that Kejri-

wal should no longer head the party.

On indulging on anti-party activities

Bhushan refuted allegations levelled by AAP'sDelhi party secretary that he and Yadav hadpropped up splinter group AVAM that hadlevelled allegations against the party of acquir-ing funds from shell companies before the Delhielection.

Bhushan said that any complaints against himand Yadav of indulging in anti-party activitiesshould be referred to the party's internal Lokpal

so that it could investigate and decide the actionto be taken against them.

He denied that he or Yogendra Yadav had evertried to unseat Kejriwal from any position in theparty and they had always spoken to him whenthere were differences of opinion.

On the party becoming a one-man party

Bhushan said there was a very real danger of theparty being reduce to a one-man cult and thatthey hadn't set out to create a party that would

be controlled entirely by a high command.

"There is a major risk to the founding ideal ofthe party of swaraj," he said.

The lawyer said that that he had spoken withKejriwal in the past and had told him that whilethe AAP leader had many qualities that madehim a remarkable leader, he had told Kejriwalthat it shouldn't be just his writ that runs inthe party and that he had a serious weakness of

wanting every decision of his to be carried out.

I have said that though he is mostly right thereneeds to be a decentralised process so that oth-ers can contradict him if needed, Bhushan said.

On whether Kejriwal had tried to reachout to him

Bhushan said there had been a breakdown ofcommunication in the party, since the allega-tions had begun ying thick and fast and he

hasn't had the chance to speak with ArvindKejriwal.

"Unfortunately Arvind hasn't spoken to me inthe last few days. There has been a breakdownin communication. Am open and willing to talkto him and anybody else," Bhushan said.


32/50

Reality or rumours?Heres what AAPleaders said about the rift in party


The Aam Aadmi Party has yet again land-ed itself in a controversy. Serious differ-ences seem to have cropped up within

the party with an internal Lokpal pointing totwo camps emerging within top leadership andasking the party to consider 'one-man, one-post'arrangement.

Now, two of the founding leaders of the party

Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan havealso offered to opt out of the political affairscommittee. The Economic Times reports:

Prashant Bhushan, in a letter dated February26 addressed to the national executive of theparty - a copy of which is with ET - slammedKejriwal for "overturning collective decisions ofthe party".

While the rift came to the fore as recently ason Sunday with Admiral Ramdas's letter aheadof AAP's National Executive Meet, there were

signs of a storm brewing in the party when inJanuary, Bhushan had publicly said there weredifferences among the leaders about the party'scandidates in Delhi.

Then Prashant Bhushan had said: There were alot of complaints about the kind of candidatesselected, especially those who had been para-dropped into the party recently. Some of them

were referred to the party Lokpal, who recom-mended the removal of two candidates.

And now, barely weeks after AAP convenorand Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stormedto power, Delhi's ruling party is making head-lines due to a rift among its leaders. Reports onSunday suggested that Ramdas had emphasisedon more clarity on whether Kejriwal can handledual posts of Delhi chief minister and National

Convenor. He also noted there was "abjectbreakdown in communication and mutual trust"in top leadership which was "unacceptable".

However, dismissing all the reports, Yogendra Yadav said they were all baseless.


33/50

Yadav said: For the last two days, I am reading news about myself and Prashant Bhushan. Newstories, new conspiracies are formed... After going through these reports, sometime I laugh andsometime I am hurt. All stories are ctitious. Some people have so much imagination... The inten-tions behind these stories are very painful. Delhiites have given us a huge mandate and this is thetime to work more with a large heart. We should not lower that expectation with our petty actions

But Prashant Bhushan surely didn't agree with Yadav. After the reports of the rift, Bhushan againtold the media that: One person-centric campaign, which was run during Delhi elections, is mak-ing our party look more and more like other conventional parties that are also one-person centric.The only difference being that we still claim that we are wedded to the principles of 'swaraj' whilethey don't. Running one person-centric campaign may be effective, but does that justify sacricingour principles? We will need to make a conscious course correction if we have to get away from asupremo controlled party.

And as the media is going to town over whether the party is divided or not, there has been no reac-tion from Kejriwal.


34/50

Trying to water down the allegations of the rift, party leader Ashutosh said: The decision of Na-tional Executive will be the party's decision. What you see as a conict within party, I see it as dif-ference of opinions.

But not everyone was as diplomatic as Ashutosh while commenting over the isssue.

Party leader Sanjay Singh went to the extent of saying: The party won't be able to function smooth-

ly when senior members of party target Arvind ji and make efforts to defame the party. Attemptsare being made to remove Arvind Kejriwal as AAP's National Convener.

With agency inputs


35/50

The ugly AAP:Battle against Yadav,Bhushan shows whats wrong with party

Sandipan Sharma, March 4, 2015

India's citizens should be grateful toPrashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadavfor triggering the ugly internal war within

AAP.

Had they remained silent, we would have con-tinued with the illusion of AAP being a party

based on idealism, devoted to public service,founded on the principles of internal democ-racy and an outt where leaders put sacriceahead of position of power.

The grotesque war being fought shamelessly inpublic reveals that AAP represents none of theprinciples it had peddled. It is ultimately likeany other Indian political party, minus the basicetiquette required to deal with internal conicts

with a modicum of tact.

What exactly is the difference between AAP andany other Indian party? In fact, it seems insteadto be an amalgamation of their worst quali-ties. Like Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party, it ispersonality-centric, and has a supremo culture;like Mamata Banerjees Trinamool, it humiliatesdissenters and throws them out at the earli-

est opportunity; like the Congress, it is full ofdrawing-room politicians who want to usurppower through sycophancy and court intrigues;like the Jansangh and the BJP, it is eager to get

rid of its founding members and senior leaders;and like the darbar of Hastinapur, it has a Dhr-itrashtra-type patriarch who watches in silenceas the partys honour is disrobed in public.

With the benet of hindsight, it is clear thatArvind Kejriwal himself triggered this war. Set-tling scores with Yadav and the Bhushans wasalways on his agenda; he was merely waiting for

the right opportunity. And he cleverly used hisoath-taking ceremony at the Ramlila Maidan tosend the attack signal to his troops.

Some people are suggesting that we will nowcontest elections in other states, some are say-ing that we will now go to ve other states. Ithink it is their ahankar, Kejriwal had said onFebruary 15. Though the exact signicance ofhis speech was missed in the euphoria of his vic-

tory, it is now clear that he was publicly rebuk-ing Yadav for making statements to the mediaclaiming that the party would target states likeHaryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradeshand Odisha.

When the top functionary of a party uses apublic platform to humiliate his colleagues, itshould not come as a surprise that now every-

body is washing the dirty AAP laundry on twit-ter and TV.

To be fair to the AAP, every political party wit-nesses a power struggle during the course of itsevolution. During the Delhi election campaign,

when Shanti Bhushan had questioned ArvindKejriwals politics and ideology, Firstpost hadpointed out that democracy in political partieshas always been a myth in India.

From Indira and Sonia Gandhis Congress to VP

Singhs Janata Dal and Narendra Modis BJP,parties almost always revolve around person-alities, who run them like personal businesses,treating those below them as followers, not col-
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/all-hail-the-supreme-leader-aap-has-become-a-one-man-party-run-by-arvind-kejriwal-2059317.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/all-hail-the-supreme-leader-aap-has-become-a-one-man-party-run-by-arvind-kejriwal-2059317.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/all-hail-the-supreme-leader-aap-has-become-a-one-man-party-run-by-arvind-kejriwal-2059317.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/all-hail-the-supreme-leader-aap-has-become-a-one-man-party-run-by-arvind-kejriwal-2059317.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/


36/50

laborators.

This model has worked for decades because theleader acquires so much power and authoritythat he/she is embraced not just as the primusinter pares (rst among equals), but worshippedas the supreme leader.

The leaders ascent to the top is usually a long-drawn process, dotted with revolts, betrayals,public spats and, sometimes, nasty political

battles. In the end, the winner takes it all andthe loser either surrenders or walks out to join adifferent party.But the problem with AAP is that all this is hap-pening way too early. And that the differencesare not only over personalities but also policiesand ideologies.

Yadav and the Bhushans are on one side of thedivide; they are driven more by idealism andrigid principles that gave the party the virtu-ous image of a movement. On the other side areKejriwal and his supporters who want to pursuepolitical pragmatism that will convert the move-ment into a successful political party. Ideally,the party should have struck a viable compro-mise. Winning elections is important, but that

was not the partys only objective. The AAPsucceeded only because it was seen as driven

by change not merely power; people were en-thusiastic about it only because it appeared to

be rooted in idealism, honesty and principles of

public morality.

Then there are the personality clashes.Ashutosh Gupta, Ashish Khaitan, the AAPs TVstudio leaders and intellectuals, Sanjay Singhand some of the others in this faction wantto control the party now. They are aware thatKejriwal will soon have to quit the nationalconvenors post under the one-man-one-postprinciple. But, like all sycophants whose suste-nance depends on their benefactor, they do not

want independent thinkers or leaders who havea pan-India identity to become parallel powercentres.Some of the AAP supporters and volunteers arestill optimistic that the bickering within the AAP

will stop. They have ooded Twitter with thehashtag #united AAP. But the damage is already

done.

Even if the AAP leaders reconcile their differ-ences and present the faade of a happy family,the people are unlikely to be fooled. They willknow that this is just a temporary arrangementthat serves the individual egos and ambitions ofeach leader. It will be politics and politicians as usual. Like Mayawatis BSP, the future ofKejriwals AAP is clearly written on the wall.


37/50

One man charisma:AAP will fall ifKejriwal keeps running the party alone

G Pramod Kumar, March 2, 2015

At the peak of a success that no otherpolitical party in India could achieve,the AAP looks vulnerable to a meltdown

yet again. Last time it faced an implosion was ayear ago, when some local, but prominent lead-ers revolted because they failed to get positionsin the government. More over, people werealso speaking out of line and devising their ownideologies.

This time, the situation appears graver becausethere seems to be a serious difference of opin-ion among the three top founding leaders of theparty - Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav andPrashant Bhushan. A leaked letter from AAPsInternal Lokpal, Admiral Ramdas, to the partysnational executive conrmsthe turmoil at thetop while media reports suggest that Yadav andBhushan are unhappy about the way decisionsare made and that Kejriwal wants them to beremoved from the partys national executive. Inshort, there seems to be rising dissent againstthe style of functioning of Kejriwal and howmost of the power is vested on him.

While Yadav reportedly dismissed the sugges-

tions of a rift as a conspiracy, party spokes-person Ashutosh tweeted that it was a clash

between the ultra left and pragmatic politics.However, from the letters of Admiral Ramdas

and Bhushan its abundantly clear that there isindeed a problem.

What the AAP is facing are the perils of a bour-geoisie democracy that even a party with highideals cannot escape. During their rise throughthe processes of social ferment and popularexcitement, the party was cruising, but when itcame to formalisation and institutionalisation,

it was confused. The dissent within its ranksand the failure to govern in Delhi last time camefrom the weakness in the last two phases thatsuccessful socio-political movements usuallysettle down to. The same weaknesses seem to behaunting the party yet again although it will stilltake time to judge its performance on govern-ance that also makes up the process of institu-tionalisation.

The problem is certainly the difculty of AAPin aligning with a set pattern of our bourgeoisiedemocracy wherein ideals have to compete withelectoral support and constraints of running apolitical party that will ultimately mimic otherparties. Kejriwal began as an uncompromisingidealist, but had to quickly change to a practicalpolitician that ts the needs of Indian democ-racy. If he hadnt made this quick transition, hisparty wouldnt have won.

The biggest weakness attributed to him - that ishe is running a party that is one-person cen-tricis in fact such a trap thats hard to escape.In Delhi, it was the Kejriwal phenomenon thathad won las time and he wanted to persist withthat winning formula which proved to be moresuccessful, this time around. Now, he is a cap-tive of this formula. The man who spoke ofswaraj, participatory democracy and bottom-updecision making is now unable to shirk off a

top-down, one-person centric model. It maybe noted that even Jawaharlal Nehru, who wasa profound believer of democracy, embodiedparadox and autocratic tendencies. (Economic
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/two-camps-aap-criticism-inner-party-democracy-partys-internal-lokpal-2130103.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/two-camps-aap-criticism-inner-party-democracy-partys-internal-lokpal-2130103.htmlhttp://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-02/news/59683957_1_yogendra-yadav-prashant-bhushan-arvind-kejriwalhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/prashant-bhushan-slams-aaps-one-person-centric-campaign-calls-for-swaraj-within-party-2130377.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/prashant-bhushan-slams-aaps-one-person-centric-campaign-calls-for-swaraj-within-party-2130377.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/prashant-bhushan-slams-aaps-one-person-centric-campaign-calls-for-swaraj-within-party-2130377.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/prashant-bhushan-slams-aaps-one-person-centric-campaign-calls-for-swaraj-within-party-2130377.htmlhttp://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-02/news/59683957_1_yogendra-yadav-prashant-bhushan-arvind-kejriwalhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/two-camps-aap-criticism-inner-party-democracy-partys-internal-lokpal-2130103.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/two-camps-aap-criticism-inner-party-democracy-partys-internal-lokpal-2130103.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/


38/50

Philosophy of Jawaharlal Nehru edited by AnilKumar Thakur, Debes Mukhopadhayay). Kejri-

wal is a quicker political product than Nehru.

In the coming days, the reconciliation of AAP,or more importantly the majority of its ap-paratus led by Kejriwal, to the demands of a

bourgeoisie democracy will be more evident andmay lead to two possibilities - one, the partygets mainstreamed like the Congress and theCommunists after their initial years of ideals;and two, it holds on to its ideals and fails. If anoriginally idealistic Congress could get infested

with all types of inuence peddlers and vestedinterests and the Communists in Kerala andBengal could unabashedly espouse the cause ofcrony capitalists, its hard for the AAP to remainimmune. If Kejriwal continues to run the party

on his charisma alone, the decline will be faster.

Yadav and Bhushan are evidently worried aboutthis possibility. If AAP has to sustain itself inDelhi and scale up across India as an exampleof alternative politics, its uid DNA has to be

wired differently. It was a social movement,co-created by the people of Delhi, that turnedinto a political party. As it expands, if it has tochange the game of Indian politics, it has to defy

the norms and play by its own rules. Thats whathappened in Delhi, but the bigger challenge issustaining it.

The only opportunity that the Indian politicalestablishment led by parties such as the BJPand the Congress is looking for is evidence toprove that AAP is no different from them. Dur-ing the Delhi election campaign and the post-election debates, this was the obvious attempt ofthe BJP. Therefore, the AAP doesnt even needto fail to be dubbed a failure, but show signs ofits ideals fraying. However, practical politicsand governance will certainly demand somecompromises, which even Lenin had advised hisfollowers to avoid the risk of turning into noth-ing but windbags.

Anyway, its work in progress and lets see ifwhat happens next.


39/50

AAP rift: Did Yogendras ambition puthim on a collision course with Kejriwal?


New Delhi: Is the political ambition of

Yogendra Yadav the root cause of thepredicament he nds himself in today?

As the National Executive of the Aam AadmiParty meets to decide his fate on Wednesday,many associated with the two-year-old partyhave started wondering whether he was movingtoo fast while charting the expansion course forthe AAP.

According to sources in the know of the de-velopments, the origin of the conict betweenthe psephologist-turned-politician and ArvindKejriwal goes back to the Haryana assemblyelection last year.

"Yogendra wanted that AAP should contestHaryana assembly elections as he aspired to bethe chief minister of the state. But Arvind puthis foot down and asked everyone to focus onDelhi elections only," said a former founder-member of the party requesting anonymity. Headded that Yadav had his political ambitions."From a Lohiaite-socialism background, he hadhis political initiation in the Samajwadi JanParishad, and he later moved into AAP."

"Today, Yogendra and Prashant have raisedquestions, but in 2014, Yogendra didnt al-low many other senior members, including

me, to raise questions justifying that 'Arvind isour agship, you can't question'. Surprisingly,things have changed today," the former mem-

ber, who was in one of the top decision-makingbodies of the AAP, said.

There are a couple of developments that indi-cate that the political thinker had turned into anactive politician.

"In May 2014, Shanti Bhushan wrote to Kejriwalto step down as convener of AAP, and proposed

Yadavs name. Ultimately, it didn't happen,but it was a strong attempt to pitch in Yadav,"one of the AAPs core team members claimed.

After the Haryana assembly elections Yadav hadreportedly expressed his 'disappointment' overpartys decision not to contest the poll, given thefact that party volunteers in Haryana wanted to

go for it.

Stung by its decimation in the general election,where the AAP had bagged only four out of440 Lok Sabha seats it contested, Kejriwal hadopted to stay away from assembly elections inHaryana and Maharashtra and made Delhi hispriority. This had led to Yadav voicing his disap-pointment in public.

He had told ANI prior to Haryana elections,"Naturally, I am disappointed; workers are call-ing me to express their anger and disappoint-ment. At the same time in a democratic partyone cannot say that one's will should prevail.

Arvind is not saying I have a veto. It is Haryanaleadership which is saying that unless the partychief is with us we do not want to contest; it's adifferent situation.

He had added, "My personal opinion is that we

should contest elections, I agree with the vol-unteers that having contested elections once

we have no option but to try and retain theground. Otherwise, what do we say to those ve


40/50

lakh people who voted for us [during the LokSabha]?"

Yadav, who is the chief spokesperson of theparty and in-charge of the Haryana state unit,is considered as the intellectual face of AAP.During Delhi assembly election, he acted as acrisis manager to reply to volleys of questionsposed by the media, over sundry decisions ofthe party.

Besides Yadavs personal ambitions, insidersfeel that given Arvind Kejriwals authoritarianattitude, a clash of personalities was going totake place some day.

"Arvind is a dictator. Whosoever he consid-ers to be a possible threat wont be there in the

party. Whether its Yogendra Yadav or PrashantBhushan, they both have an individual identityand it would cause problem," said Rakesh Agar-

wal, a former founder member of AAP.

On condition of anonymity, especially due to theon-going turmoil, many within the party haveopined, "Yadav has a strong political ambition,

which is in conict with the party line. If one isa member of a disciplined and democratic party

like AAP, one ought to follow the decision of itsleader and cant sing a different tune."

Both Kejriwal and Yadav have had differences ofopinion over the regional or national characterof the party for sometime.

During his swearing-in ceremony on 14 Febru-ary, 2015, Chief Minister Kejriwal said he wouldfocus on Delhi only for the next ve years,

rather than going for any expansion. But, Yadavhad a different take on this issue, which exposedthe differences in opinion.

Around the same time, Yadav had said in an in-terview to the PTI, "We are not a regional party.In the long term, we want to be a national alter-native. That is why we chose Delhi consciously.

We want to emerge as a principled force innational politics. In the next 3-5 years, we wantto become viable in more states than Delhi andPunjab."

On hindsight, it seems that all these attempts ofYadav to give AAP a national colour backred.A section of the National Executive (NE) mem-bers provided proofs of all these incidents anddemanded his expulsion from NE. The latestto add fuel to re is a sting tape of a telephonicconversation between a reporter and Kejriwalsaide.

"Every leader in a political party is bound tohave political ambition and aspiration, moreover if he or she has contested an election.Theres nothing wrong in that. Why should it

be a question in the case of Yogendra ji, who isalready an acceptable face? Unfortunately, hisstrengths like his articulate and cool tempera-ment even when faced with difcult questions,intellect and a zeal to bring a revolutionarychange in politics, have all led to a threat per-

ception," said an AAP member working in theYadavs team of volunteers.


41/50

AAP rift with Bhushan, Yadav is muchado about nothing: Kejriwal will win

R Jagannathan, March 2, 2015

The media has reported a rift within the

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP),with threefounder members - Yogendra Yadav,

Prashant Bhushan and his dad Shanti Bhushan- reportedly unhappy over Arvind Kejriwal'stendency to overturn collective decisions of theparty.

Take my word for it, this so-called "revolt" willgo nowhere. The centralisation of decision-mak-ing in AAP actually signals its coming of age.First, it is rapidly metamorphosing from a massmovement to a normal mass-based politicalparty, even if its footprint is currently limited toDelhi and some pockets of Punjab; second, it isa clear recognition of the Indian reality that so-called "collective" leadership does not work.

No political party anywhere in India has suc-ceeded in capturing power without a singlepowerful leader at the top. AAP under Kejriwalhas recognised this reality and this is why hispersonality looms above the rest. The rest cancarp and grumble, but only Kejriwal matters for

AAPs mass connect right now. It was the pro-jection of Kejriwal as CM that played a big part

in AAPs landslide win over BJP in last monthsassembly elections. Collective leadership did notcontribute much to the win.

The media tends to make a big issue of intra-party differences in political parties but India'spolitical history proves them to be consistently

wrong. In the end, only the top leader matters.

Consider the case of the BJP in 2013. The me-dia went to town about the intra-party feudingand LK Advani's dissenting letters opposing theanointment of Narendra Modi as the party's

prime ministerial candidate. What happened?Advani is now in the emeritus category, part ofthe "margdarshak mandal". Modi delivered thegoods.

The same happened with the Congress partywith repeated splits. Only the party led by adynastic leader survived. Other splinters (Trina-mool and NCP, for instance) did manage to be-come regionally strong, but nationally they are

small fry relative to the Congress party. FromNehru to Indira to Rajiv to Sonia, the Congresshas had only one power centre.

Take any regional party in India - DMK, AIAD-MK, TDP, TMC, JD(U), Samajwadi, BSP, NC,PDP, RJD or LJP - and you will nd only onesupreme leader, not collective leadership. TheCPI(M) and the BJP were exceptions till recent-ly, but it was the BJP's abandonment of collec-tive leadership that enabled the party to breakthrough to a majority in the Lok Sabha.

Collective leadership led it to defeat in 2009.The party's earlier success in the 1996-1999period was also the result of the building of the

Atal Behari Vajpayee cult as the supreme leader.

The CPI(M) still claims to believe in collectiveleadership, but the party's successes in the pastneeded a charismatic Jyoti Basu, an EMS Nam-

boodiripad, and VS Achuthanandan to pull itoff. At some point, the CPI(M) will also have toacknowledge this reality by anointing a formalCM candidate in the states it hopes to make an
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/yogendra-yadav-on-his-way-out-of-aap-rumoured-rift-with-kejriwal-may-be-to-blame-2126957.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/yogendra-yadav-on-his-way-out-of-aap-rumoured-rift-with-kejriwal-may-be-to-blame-2126957.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/yogendra-yadav-on-his-way-out-of-aap-rumoured-rift-with-kejriwal-may-be-to-blame-2126957.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/yogendra-yadav-on-his-way-out-of-aap-rumoured-rift-with-kejriwal-may-be-to-blame-2126957.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/


42/50

impact in.

It is easy to attribute this Indian preference fora strong leader to the advent of TV and the shiftto a presidential type of campaigning. But this

would be only a surface observation. The truthis this phenomenon of parties with one supremeleader predates the advent of TV or presidentialstyle elections. At best, presidential style cam-paigns are an adaptation to the Indian voter'sneed to see someone as supreme leader.

The question then is: why are we like that only?

My answer is that we are too diverse and tooargumentative a people to believe that collectiveleadership can work. Endless argumentationand extreme diversity make it vital for the voter

to see some coherence at the top, and a nalarbiter when there are differences. Without thesupreme leader at the top, we nd it difcult to

believe that there can be order amidst argumen-tative chaos.

Collective leadership is for homogeneous so-cieties, not diverse societies which have yet toestablish a truly neutral rule of law. When thelatter does not exist, we want individuals to

make the law to end arguments and disputes. Ina fundamental sense, our preference for strongleaders stems from our realisation that we are alow-trust society and can't easily come to com-promises from below.

This is why successful political parties tend notto have collective leadership. Modi proved thatin 2013-14. Even in the Congress party today,the problem is the emergence of Rahul Gandhias a source of dissonance in the partyeven withSonia Gandhi as president. One of them willhave to move into the background. This is whatRahul Gandhi is trying

Documents

FirstpostEbook Dirtypoliticstoegoclashes-AllyouneedtoknowabouttheAAPbreakup FINAL 20150309071226